


1X01- The Story You Know

by Libelli



Series: Rewrite the Stars [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abandonment, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, But its Pidge so that will get fixed, Canon Rewrite, Canon-Typical Violence, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Found Family, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) Has Abandonment Issues, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Reimagined, Rewrite, Rewrite the Stars AU, Science Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Voltron Rewrite, alchemist allura, wrong pronouns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-19 01:14:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 20,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29742735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Libelli/pseuds/Libelli
Summary: Lance wants to be the best pilot the world has ever seen.Hunk wants to pass his flight exams (without embarrassing himself).Pidge has a secret.Keith wants to find Shiro.Shiro just wants to go home.Along the way, they get swept up in a fight for freedom on the galactic level, meet aliens friendly and not so much, and find five magical, transforming lions.A rewrite of Voltron: Legendary Defender, that has to start from the beginning that we all know and loved.
Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron)
Series: Rewrite the Stars [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2186007
Comments: 15
Kudos: 10





	1. Author's Note

Back when Voltron ended I did not really like the ending. As a person who not only consumes media, but especially as a person who studies how stories work, I thought it was odd to say the least. When it originally ended in 2018, I made a tumblr post and asked some of my friends if I should just rewrite it, because I knew I could. Everyone said yes- enthusiastically.

Long story short I made plans and started writing. Originally planning on rewriting from season four on. Then that turned into season three on. And now here I am doing the whole thing. 

Life happened and it came upon a year or so after the show ended and I had originally proposed the idea with nothing published. I thought, “Who am I to write this whole thing for a basically dead fandom and show that I’m not really into anymore?” 

Then 2020 happened. 

And I said screw it, I still want to do it. I wanted to see this project exist outside of my notes. Maybe everyone will read it. Maybe only I will read it. But I’m just putting it out there. I won’t know unless I try. 

This is my rewrite of Voltron. 

I wrote it in a novel form because that’s what I’m best at. As such, some scenes, even though they are basically the show verbatim, had to be changed to fit the style of a novel rather than a show. Other scenes had to be changed to fit my rewrite. And some other scenes are just going to be the way they are because it’s me writing it and it’s my style. 

In my opinion, Voltron is a story more about friendship, teamwork, and the love of family rather than romantic love. Therefore there will be few endgame couples; two to be exact. If that’s what you’re here for then maybe this is not the story for you. If you’re here for a rework of the characters and story you like, then stick around. I hope you like what you see. 

  
I do not think I will have Lance and Keith end up together as a couple; at least, not in the sense of the two other definitive couples. For them, and the character arcs I’m planning for them, at the end I do not see either of them being emotionally available for any romance. With that being said, the arcs I am planning are intertwined with each other, and they will definitely end up  _ together _ . 

I respect that you may ship them together, so please respect the story I am trying to tell and the beats I’m trying to hit.

This rewrite is in no way meant to antagonize anyone who worked on the show. So, please leave them out of this. 

I just wanted to make something cool for a show I really loved. 

It’s just a long form fix-it fic. 

Thank you and enjoy 

-Libelli 


	2. Kerberos (Shiro)

* * *

_ It is not the stars that hold our destiny, but ourselves.  _

_ -Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare  _

* * *

  
  


Shiro was looking for Earth. He stared off to where the curve of the moon Kerberos met the inky black of space. Not too far away Pluto loomed, red and craggy, and beyond that there were millions of stars older than anything- their stories tried and true. 

Neptune was a blue dot mixed in with the stars. There was another dot further away: Uranus. He was not good enough at astronomy with his naked eye to see Saturn from this distance, but Shiro did love looking at the gas giant on the way over to Kerberos. There was no telling where Earth was. The sun’s glare outshone anything for light years. Shiro squinted and leaned forward as if that would help him see Earth, his space suit hissed and clicked with the adjustments, but there was nothing to see. Only the hot sun. To Shiro’s back was empty space, where no living thing (yet discovered) or habitable planet (also yet discovered) existed. 

“Hey, Shiro, what’re you looking for?”

Almost no living thing. 

“Home,” Shiro said as he turned. “All this cold and rock makes you really think about what you’re missing.” 

Matt’s lips quirked up in a devilish smile. “You don’t have to say Adam.” 

Shiro felt his face heat up. “I was not-!”

“Boys, boys, calm done! You do remember that the Garrison records and listens to our communications, right?” Samuel Holt said as he stepped off their ship’s loading ramp. “Matt, go start your sample collection. Shiro, come help an old man with this box.” 

Shiro obliged and tried not to shove his comrade as he walked past to begin his sample collection. Matt would’ve floated. He would’ve been fine.

“Dr. Holt, you’re not old.” Shiro said as he hefted up a box with their field lab kit in it. 

“Oh, thank you, but I just figured you need a break from my son.” Sam said. Shiro smiled. “You don’t need to call me ‘doctor’, either.” 

“I know, sir. It’s still just weird.” Shiro said as they walked towards Matt. 

Sam laughed a little. “You were always my best student, Shiro. Close to my favorite, but my best. And I’m glad you’re here with me.” 

Shiro set down the box. “Oh? Who was your favorite?” 

Matt popped up from the rocky Kerberos ground and held up one of his test vials. “Guys! I just got some great samples that I think will blow the socks off of everyone at home!”

“That I cannot choose,” Sam said to Shiro. He turned his attention to the purpose of their mission. “You find your aliens yet, Matt?” 

Matt shot his father a look. Sam unclipped the box and a little tray folded out. Shiro started to disassemble the other side and pull out the fold-away microscope. 

“So, how was Adam when you left?” Sam asked, pulling out Petri dishes. 

“Oh, you know,”

Sam paused and raised his eyebrows. 

Shiro shrugged and quickly turned his attention back to his work. “We had a small fight before we left.” He admitted. “But it was small. Really small. We’re fine. It’s fine.” 

Sam rolled his eyes. “It was only a tiff. You two’ll make up when we get back.” 

Shiro tried not to think about it. “I don’t know about that one, Dr. Holt.” He made himself laugh but even he knew it sounded forced. 

Sam stopped his work. “Colleen and I used to fight before I came up. And look at us. She was always worried about aliens or burning up on reentry or something and of course I was more concerned with the carbon levels on Neptune.” Sam said. “But you know, whether he’s waiting for you or not, they’re only really worth anything if they’re  _ still _ waiting for you despite it all.” 

Shiro smiled. He let himself pretend everything with him and Adam would be fine as he busied himself. 

“Hey, do you think I can keep a sample as a souvenir for Katie?” Matt asked as he walked over as fast as his suit and the lack of gravity allowed. He held several vials with chunks of Kerberos dirt jiggling inside with each step. “We kind of have a bet going,” 

“I don’t think your sister will have the clearance to even know about aliens if we find them, let alone keep a specimen.” Sam said. “Even if it’s your reputation on the line.” 

“It’s not my reputation I care about, it’s my forty dollars!” Matt handed the vials to his father. 

Sam waved Matt away to gather more samples. “Now, let’s take a look,” Shiro began to handover the supplies.

“Dad?!” 

“Whatever’s interesting Matt, just put it in a tube,” Sam said as he started to examine the specimens. 

“ _ Dad?! Shiro! _ ” 

Shiro’s head snapped up and he looked to Matt. Matt had dropped all of his equipment, and it was beginning to float away from him, but Matt was too busy looking above him. Another ship hovered above them, made all of angels and glowed purple and red. Sam dropped his tools. 

“ _ Run _ ,” he breathed. 

Shiro pushed himself off the ground and ran as fast as his suit and space allowed him. His feet pushed off the ground, and he clawed his way back down to the surface to push off again. 

Sam was right behind him, fighting to catch his breath. The ship made a sound like gears unlocking, Shiro looked over his shoulder and saw a green beam of light shooting down from the ship. Shiro watched as their field equipment rose up into the sky. 

A tractor beam.

“Get to the ship!” Shiro yelled. 

Sam took off in front. Shiro looked back again, and saw Matt stumble. Shiro stopped and ran the way back to Matt and hauled him to his feet. As Shiro pulled Matt forward, he felt weightless; he looked up and saw the green maw of the ship.

* * *

When Shiro came to, he was on his knees. He was eye-level with someone’s boots. He looked up and saw three…men? Their skin was purple and their ears looked like a cat’s. Their eyes glowed yellow-white and so did their weapons. Their lips hid sharp teeth. 

Shiro felt his breath seize in his lungs, and he realized his helmet was missing. Shiro reached up for his helmet to see if he was exposed to space, but his hands got caught. Shiro tried again. His wrists were bound. His skin prickled with nervous sweat. 

He heard a sound from his left. Matt was beside him, his head bowed and staring at the floor like a lifeline and trembling. Sam was further down, looking around and at their abductors. 

One of the aliens grabbed Shiro’s face and forced him to look up. “We are peaceful people on a scientific mission.” Shiro said, scrambling to remember anything from the alien negotiation training classes he had breezed through. “We mean you know harm!” 

The alien released Shiro and laughed with his friends. Shiro shifted as they turned their attention to Sam, completely ignoring Matt. He was not worth the effort. 

One of the aliens shoved Sam to the ground and he cried out in pain. 

“No!” Shiro yelled as he tried to stand. The alien who had grabbed him shoved him to the ground, harder than they did to Sam. “We are citizens of Earth!” Shiro cried out for some reason. 

“We are very aware of your backwater planet,” the alien said, his voice like gasoline. 

He smashed Shiro’s head against the metal floor, and the room spun. Darkness crept into Shiro’s vision. As darkness engulfed him, he saw the glare of the sun through a port in the ship, still covering Earth. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The quote from Julius Caesar is not exactly that, I reworked it a little so a modern audience could get the meaning right away. It's also the quote that The Fault in our Stars by John Green gets it's title.


	3. Cadets (Lance)

_Two Years Later,_

The moons of Jupiter glittered in the sunlight. The ship coasted by them at an easy pace. Lance spotted Ganymede and turned his control yokes towards the moon. The ship responded with a gentle banking turn. 

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Lance said as he leaned into his pilot's microphone, he could just picture the adoring passengers in the back of his ship thrilled to make it to the Ganymede station in record time. “This is your captain speaking, we are approaching our destination, so I recommend that you buckle-“ 

The ship jerked and lance snapped out of his fantasy to right the ship. He could feel two sets of eyes boring holes into the back of his head rest. Lance laughed. 

“Sorry, guys.” He said. 

Hunk groaned. “Come on, Lance, you did that on purpose!” 

Lance turned to the rest of his crew. Pidge had already turned his attention back to his navigation computer, but was muttering a choice conversation to himself and a pretend bad pilot that couldn’t possibly have been Lance. Hunk stared at him with pleading eyes. 

“I didn’t do that on purpose!” Lance cried. A smile crept on his face. “ _This_ I’m doing on purpose.” He jerked the yoke hard to the left. The ship turned on its side. 

Hunk threw himself on the floor like that would save him. Pidge hopped up from his chair, his headphones around his neck, he clung to the wall to keep himself upright. 

“ _Lance_!” He screamed. 

“ _Relax, Pidge._ ” Lance said, hands still on the controls and waggling the wings up and down. “I’m the pilot and I got it under control.” 

“And I’m the navigator, and you’re getting us off course!” 

Lance glanced at his radar. _Oh_. “Uh, it’s a shortcut.” 

“Shortcut? There is no-“ pidge’s eyes went wide behind his glasses. “Asteroid!” 

Lance whipped his head around in time to see a rock hurtling toward the ship. Lance pulled the ship to the right, over correcting it. His heart sank when he heard the grating and then the snapping sound as the left wing hit the asteroid. 

“We’ve lost a wing!” Hunk cried. “ _Oh, no…_ ”

Pidge darted back to his computer and threw on his headphones. “This is Wildcat reporting! Code: Hotel, Echo, Lima-“ He cut himself off as the ship shuddered. “Can you even fly this thing?!” He snapped at Lance. 

“ _We’re entering Ganymede’s atmosphere_!” Hunk said. 

Lance glanced back. Boxes and gear tumbled like they were in a washing machine. Hunk looked grey. 

Pidge read off his screen. “The surface of Ganymede is cavernous and-“ 

Lance wove in between two rock spires. He saw smoke from the missing wing. 

“ _What are you doing?!_ ” Pidge cried. 

“They don’t call me the tailor for nothing!” Lance said. He pushed the ship through a rock arch. “Watch me thread this needle!”

“Nobody calls-“ 

The arch clipped the other wing; the ship went into a tailspin. Pidge smacked against the roof and Hunk clung to a tool box. The windows showed only red rock. Lance felt his heart beat in his ears, he pulled up as hard as he could. 

And then the ship smacked into a canyon wall. 

Everything went dark. 

A message popped up in big, red letters on the window: FAILURE. 

Lance fell back against his chair and released the pilots yoke. His hands felt clammy. _Failure_. He sneered at the word. 

Pidge groaned as he sat up. “Good job, _tailor_.” 

Lance unbuckled himself. “Are you guys okay?” 

Pidge gave him the silent treatment. Hunk smiled at Lance and gave him a thumbs up. “Perfectly-“ and then he turned and vomited into his head box. Pidge’s nose wrinkled and he looked away. 

“Oh, Hunk!” Lance said as he ran over to him. He patted him on the back, but that did not help Hunk’s shaking. 

“CADETS!!!” 

Lance swore he heard Iverson’s screaming in his sleep. 

“Get out here at once!”

It was not better in person. 

Pidge marched over to the simulator’s door and smacked the release button and he strode right out. His hands were in fists at his sides. Lance reached his hand out to Hunk and pulled him to his feet. Hunk’s eyes were red and he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. Lance patted his shoulder and stepped out to face the wrath of Commandant Iverson together. 

Lance blinked as his eyes adjusted to the bright lights of the simulation room. Behind him, the simulator righted itself for the next test mission. Lance did not even want to look to see what position he had ended up putting it in. 

“That was probably one of the worst displays of flight I have ever seen in my entire career!” Iverson barked. “Class, who can tell me what these three sorry excuses for airmen did wrong? Call them out! I don’t feel like calling on you!” 

“The navigator picked a fight with the pilot!” 

“The engineer threw up in the control box!” 

Iverson glared at Hunk. Hunk did not even have the heart to stand at attention. Iverson opened his mouth to say something, but Lance stepped forward. 

“That’s my fault, sir.” Lance said quickly. “As you know, Cadet Garrett is my roommate, and I moved his motion sickness medicine this morning.” 

Iverson looked like he wanted to strangle Lance, and his comment was the icing on the cake. Lance squared his shoulders, raised his hand to his forehead in salute, and. Refused to break his eye contact with his commander. 

_Better me than Hunk_. 

Iverson looked down on Lance. “What else happened here today?” Lance felt Iverson’s breath on his face. 

“The pilot crashed?” Someone offered. 

Lance winced and he saw something like glee in Iverson’s sole eye. 

“ _And the pilot crashed_ .” He gritted out. “Sometimes, I wish Cadet Kogane didn’t drop out of this program and make way for _you_.” Lance dropped his eyes. “Class dismissed.” 

The rest of the class followed Iverson out of the simulation room. The crowd was full of teams happy with their grades, and either embarrassed for or making fun of Team Wildcat. 

“I’ve never seen anything like that…” 

“You know Pidge would be a good navigator if he were on a different team,” 

“Poor Hunk-“

“I’m just glad _we_ didn’t look like that.” 

“We should go out tonight to celebrate!” 

Hunk hung his head and scuffed his boot against the floor. Pidge had his arms folded as he shot narrow-eyed death glares at the departing cadets. 

Lance felt queasy, his blood was running hot. 

“I heard I was supposed to have McClain originally.” One last cadet said as he walked out. “I’m so glad I switched to have you as a pilot.” 

Lance stomped his foot. “Oh, yeah! We’ll show you!” He called after the other cadets. 

“Lance, just give up.” Pidge said, rubbing his arms. 

Lance rolled his eyes and wheeled around to face his teammates. He plastered a bright smile on his face that Pidge and Hunk were hesitant to return. 

“Let’s celebrate tonight!” 

Hunk blinked. “Excuse me?” 

Lance three an arm around Hunk’s shoulders. “Yeah! We deserve to have a little morale booster!” 

Pidge brushed past the two of them. “ _We literally got a twenty-four percent._ That’s not even a quarter of the total points.” He said. 

“But it’s not a zero!” Lance objected. He waved his hand in the air like he was revealing a grand painting. “What do you say? A night out on the town? Meet some girls?” Lance spotted Pidge walking towards the exit. “You in, Pidge?” he called. 

“ _I_ have homework.” Pidge grumbled, and the door slid shut behind him. 

Lance pouted. Fine. He turned to Hunk. He still looked unsure and shifted from foot to foot the moment Lance laid eyes on him. 

“Gee, I don’t know, man. We don’t exactly have the passes into town and if we’re caught AWOL again, I don’t-”

“Hunk, Hunk, Hunk,” Lance shushed him, “I have it on _very_ good intelligence that Destefano’s put their nachos back on the menu.” 

Hunk narrowed his eyes. “Kitchen sink or garbage can?”

“ _Garbage can_.” 

Hunk stared off into space for a moment and Lance could see him running the calculations as clearly as if it were on a chalkboard. Hunk turned back to Lance and gave him a curt nod. “We leave at midnight.” 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Character Ages:
> 
> Lance- 18  
> Hunk- 18  
> Keith- 18  
> Pidge- 16  
> Allura- 19  
> Shiro- 25  
> Matt- 25
> 
> Pidge is actually 16 in my rewrite even though she will say otherwise later on. Not the only thing she lies about, am I right.


	4. That's Not Homework (Lance)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I redesigned their outfits. Keep scrolling.

Midnight glowed on the clock in Lance and Hunk’s room. Lance pulled on his civilian clothes and glanced at himself the best he could in their small mirror. If he was going to meet ladies, or if he was going to get caught on base in anything other than his uniform, he wanted to look sharp. He wished he had cologne. Maybe he’d ask his mom to send him some in his next care package. 

“You’re wearing that?” Hunk asked. 

Lance pivoted. “Don’t I look good?” 

Hunk raised his arms in mock surrender. “You’re killing it as always, but did you forget it's cold out?  _ We’re in a desert. At night _ .” 

Lance scoffed. “What? You want me to wear a jacket, mom?” 

As soon as Lance finished the sentence, cloth hit him in the face. 

“Yes,  _ dear _ .” Hunk said. 

Lance grumbled about how his green jacket was old and was going to cover the cool, dark blue sleeves on his tee shirt, but he had to be glad. At least Hunk didn’t throw him hsi denim jacket. He was already wearing jeans. Denim on denim was not a mistake he was looking to repeat. 

Lance gave Hunk a once over and opened his mouth, but Hunk silenced him with a held up finger. “The headband stays,” he said firmly. 

Lance shrugged. “I wasn’t going to even question it.” 

After Lance and Hunk made sure their laundry dummies were safely tucked in their beds, they snuck out into the hallway. The halls in the Garrison dormitory were always lit the same bright, intense light day and night in case of an emergency and the cadets had to scramble. Just like on a real spaceship. It was good for Lance and Hunk so they could see where they were going. It was bad for Lance and Hunk because teachers and night monitors could see where they were going. 

Lance stepped heel to toe, stretching as far as his legs would take him with each step. Hunk stuck close behind him. It was a simple route: down the hall, past the bathrooms, past the recycling, across the lobby (and Iverson’s office), down a short flight of stairs and bingo. Home free. No biggy. 

“I don’t know about this,” Hunk whispered as they ducked under Iverson’s one-way window. Iverson was yelling on the phone about something, how it was ‘probably just a stupid meteor.’

Lance grasped Hunk’s wrist and pulled him the last of the way. “Don’t be a chicken.” They bolted down the last corridor. 

The air was cool as they burst out into the night. The sun and its bright desert heat had been replaced by the stars and the blue moon. 

“Alright! Nacho and lady time!” Lance quietly cheered as he punched his fist up in the air. 

Hunk smiled at him and together they began to walk down the path to the hole in the fence that would lead them right to town. Their footsteps crunched on the pebbly earth, and behind them generators and mechanical equipment hummed as the actual Garrison members kept watch over the night sky. 

“Hey, why did you lie today?” Hunk asked. “About my nausea medicine?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Uh, yeah, you do? This morning you literally handed it to me, and I remember-” Hunk stopped, his eye locked on something on top of the condemned equipment shed. “Is that…?”

Lance looked up. On top of the building, surrounded by HAM radios and glowing computers, was Pidge. His familiar, unruly hair was caught in the light from his screens and the searchlights on the perimeter. 

“Oh, this has gotta be good,” Lance said, already walking over to the shed’s fire escape. 

Pidge was in the zone. He sat cross-legged with his equipment spread around him like a halo. His hands flew across the keyboards, knobs, and his own notepad. Occasionally, he would stop and take a sip of a violently colored energy drink. 

Pidge listened to his headphones like he was hearing the secrets of the universe. Pidge paused mid-note and gazed up at the stars, and he let his eyes slip closed. 

Lance pointed at Pidge and glanced back at Hunk who’s head had just popped over the edge of the roof.  _ Watch this _ . Hunk made it very clear with his shaking head that he would not. Lance crept up behind Pidge, close enough to breathe down his neck, he put his lips close to Pidge’s headphoned ear and said: “That doesn’t look like homework.”

Pidge jumped five feet into the air and screamed. He whipped around and when his eyes settled on Lance, he saw them turn from frightened to angry. “WHAT ARE YOU-” Pidge seemed to realize how much sound he was making and clapped his hands over his mouth. “ _ What are you doing _ ?” he whispered. 

“ _ We were _ going out to have some fun,” Lance said, behind him, Hunk gave Pidge a wave, “and then we saw you.” 

The only response Pidge could muster was: “It’s way past curfew!” He gave Lance and Hunk a once over. “A-and you’re not in uniform!” As if he wasn’t wearing a green sweatshirt, cargo shorts, and sneakers with high ankle socks. 

“And  _ you _ lied to us,” Lance said, putting his hands on his hips. Pidge averted his eyes. Lance took a deep breath. “What exactly are you doing?” he asked. 

Pidge sighed, like he was admitting defeat. “Aliens are real.”

Hunk and Lance could not even comprehend even sharing a look in that moment. Hunk shook his head. 

“Suuuure they are, Pidge.” he said. 

“It’s true!” Pidge cried, “I listen to them every night!” Lance reached down to touch an antenna. Pidge smacked his hand away without a blink.

Lance rubbed his hand. “Come on, Pidge, aliens?”

“ _ They’re real _ .” Pidge said, his tone icy. He held up his notebook. “I’ve been coming out here every night, and every night I hear them. Their communications have actually been getting louder. Tonight is no different. And they’re all talking about one thing,”

Pidge tapped the open page in his notebook. Amid the hastily jotted down conversations was one word, underlined and circled. 

“ _ Voltron _ ,” Lance breathed.

Pidge nodded. “Yes, Voltron.” There were drawings of canons and propulsion equipment. “From what I hear, it sounds like some sort of weapon.”

Hunk shook his head. “I don’t know, are you sure you’re not just picking up, you know,  _ human _ radio?”

“I’m not lying! These are not Earth-bound transmissions,  _ and would you stop touching my equipment _ !”Lance took a step back and offered his teammate a sheepish grin. It was not received well. Pidge took a deep breath and smoothed out his hair. “All this chatter, all this work,” Pidge looked back to the sky as if Lance and Hunk were not there, “It can’t be for nothing.”

Hunk cleared his throat. “If it’s not aliens, what can it-”

Hunk was cut off as orange light burst in the sky. Lance threw up his arm immediately and blinked the popping stars out of his eyes. When he could, Lance looked up to see a fireball hurtling down from space. 

Before any of them could say anything, the fireball crashed into the ground. The building beneath their feet rattled and in the distance security alarms went off. Pidge whipped out binoculars from his bag and sucked in a breath. “It’s a pod!” he cried. “Like an escape pod!”

Pidge lowered his binoculars and Lance saw a million thoughts race through his mind. Across base, trucks and hover cars rolled out of the garages filled with Garrison personnel. Pidge zoomed back in on the canyon where the pod had crashed. 

Hunk clapped his hands together. “Well, this was pretty fun, but we should let the professionals handle it from here!” 

“Wow, they’re going down there pretty fast,” Pidge said, as if to himself, “I’d kill to see what they did when that thing came crashing down.”

Lance stroked his chin. He wondered, too. 

“Lance, we were going back to our dorm?” Hunk said with a smile. 

Lance shrugged. If this was freaking Hunk out, he would gladly go back to their room. 

“Wait,” Pidge said, “Who’s this guy?”

From out in the desert, a dust cloud was kicked up by a figure cutting across the sand in a hoverbike. The figure skidded to a halt behind a rock and peered out at the scientists already pitching a tent around the pod. The figure looked to be a boy around Lance’s age, his bike was red, and his hair was floppy and wild, like he had not cut it in over a year. 

“Hold on a second,” Lance yanked the binoculars out of Pidge’s hands. Despite Pidge’s protests, Lance ignored him and zoomed in on the new arrival. “That’s Keith!” Lance cried. 

“Keith?” Pidge asked. 

“Are you sure?” Hunk asked. 

Lance tossed Pidge his binoculars back. It had to be him. It was him. He wasn’t in his uniform, that Lance had only seen him in before- instead he was wearing a hot mess of ripped jeans and a red and black checkered shirt that were both too big for him, boots, and a dark tee shirt. But the hair. 

“I’d recognize that mullet anywhere!” Lance ran back towards the fire escape. “If he’s here that means it’s bound to be good and I’m not letting him take all the credit!”

Lance practically jumped down the ladder. 

“ _ Lance _ !” Hunk cried as he ran after him.

“ _ Who’s Keith?! _ ” Pidge screeched. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lance said the thing :)


	5. Keith (Keith)

Keith heard someone screaming. 

And that alone was enough to make his blood boil. 

He focused on keeping his steps as quiet as possible in the make-shift laboratory. If he ran his steps would echo, and the whole thing would be ruined.  _ Patience yields focus. _

He had waited and watched as the Garrison swooped in and set up their perimeter and hazmat tents. The so-called scientists and soldiers were too busy radioing in for backup of all kinds and patting themselves on the back for a real live alien catch to look behind the rock for any Earthly trespassers. 

_ It’s a pod _ . Keith had thought as saw the pod disappear behind tent walls.  _ Not the Death Star.  _

Keith’s muscles burned to run, jump, pull open doors and find out  _ the what _ . What was the pod. What was in the pod. What had  _ called _ to him. What had pulled him all the way back to the stupid Garrison in the middle of the night. 

Keith remembered the call. He had been up late, transferring his notes of the day off his phone and onto his board. He even remembered the numbers. Thirty-six degrees north and one hundred and twelve degrees west. They weren’t it. Whatever it had been. He was writing down to try thirty-five degrees north tomorrow and then he felt something. Like a tap on his shoulder. A strong breeze in a certain direction that beckoned him to look. 

Just like in the cave. 

Keith put down his notes and hopped onto his bike. He let that something guide him, it was familiar, like finally coming home-

He shook his head. He was not going to go crazy out here. 

The Garrison moved in a flurry of motion to set up their make-shift lab. The soldiers moved to their armored trucks leaving the scientists behind. Keith looked to make sure the road was clear, pulled his mask over his face (Shiro would have killed him if he got in trouble with the Garrison, again), and ran into the tent. 

The whole place smelled like sterile plastic and Keith gagged behind his bandanna-mask. Machines beeped and radio static fired off as the comms from the Garrison dispatched more scientists- and soldiers. Keith picked up the pace. 

“ _ You don’t understand! They’re coming here! They’re going to kill us all! _ ” the someone, a man, screamed. 

The scientists did not seem too bothered. “His right arm is made up of completely  _ unknown _ material!” a woman said, her voice dripping with delight. 

“ _ Are you even listening to me _ ?!”

“David, do you have any sedatives on you?” a second scientist asked. 

“ _ What?! No! No! Don’t- _ ” the man’s screams were cut off. 

Keith could just picture the Garrison scientists now, probably smiling behind the hazmat suits he knew they were bound to be wearing, patting each other on the back, and probably about to cut into whoever it was that crash landed. 

Keith finally made it to the end of the hallway where the door and its switch lay. All was still quiet in the room. He took a deep breath and punched the switch. A man laid limp on the table tied down with several straps across his torso and legs. Three scientists in hazmats suits hovered around him; one clutched a scanner, another a freshly emptied syringe, and the third a clipboard and pen. 

“Hey! Who are you?” The one with the clipboard asked. 

Keith raised his fists. He charged the scientist with a syringe and punched him in the general area where his jaw would have been, he stumbled back and collapsed. The scientist with the scanner made a sound of alarm as she grabbed a taser from her belt loop and swung her arm in an arc at Keith. Keith ducked and heard the air sizzle from the trail of the taser. The scientist that had held the clipboard lunged to grab Keith, but when he did, Keith kicked the scanner-taser scientist in his direction. They smacked into each other and with the taser between the two of them, they collapsed in a pile of electricity. 

The scientists laid on the floor groaning. Keith’s knuckles stung as he flexed his hands reaching for his knife. He took the knife from the sheath on his belt and moved to cut away the straps on the man being held down. 

Keith looked down at the man, the first he had to since breaking into the field lab. He froze in his tracks. 

“Shiro?” 

This was the last person he expected to ever see again. Keith swallowed his emotions as he looked over the person below him, examining his face.

It was Shiro. 

His dark hair was cropped tight to his head save for a little on top that was streaked with white. Shiro had on a metal glove and some weird purple outfit that looked more like rags pulled out from a dumpster. He was skinnier than the last time Keith had seen him; Shiro had been athletic and fit before, but now he looked like he had not one ounce of fat on him. And then there was his face, suddenly all angles with deep bags under his eyes, and a jagged, pink scar across the bridge of his nose and cheek bones. He was sickly pale. 

But he was undeniably Shiro. 

Keith glanced down at the scientist that had chattered something about unknown material. Keith wished he’d hit her harder. 

He bent down and pulled his knife through the straps, they snapped up into the air from the force, but Keith didn’t care. He put his knife away and pulled Shiro up. Shiro’s head drooped down and all of his weight leaned onto Keith. 

“ _ I got you _ ,” Keith said, he expected no response. His mind raced with what would happen next: get Shiro on the bike, get Shiro to his house, wake Shiro up? Demand to know where the Hell he’s been for two years? 

Keith took one step forward with Shiro’s arm slung over him when the door to the lab swished open. Keith’s head shot up and he thought about what would be worse: getting captured and probably being brought to Iverson or having to explain some weird fall-against-a-table bruises to Shiro later. He reached for his knife. 

Someone clearly not Garrison stepped through the door. “Oh no, nope, nope, noppity no, you are not saving Shiro.” the young man said. 

The new stranger waltzed over and threw Shiro’s arm over his shoulders. 

Keith looked at him. “ _ Who _ are you?” 

“Uh, the name’s  _ Lance _ ,” The young man looked expectantly at Keith. Keith was at a loss for words. “Oh, come on, Keith! You mean you don’t recognize me!” 

Keith blinked. “I have never seen you before in my life.” 

“At the Garrison!” The young man cried. If he hadn’t still been holding on to Shiro, Lance (the supposed Lance) would have been talking with his hands, because he was holding onto Shiro, he used Shiro’s hand instead. “We were in the same classes! Lance and Keith, neck and neck! We were rivals!” 

“Wait, I remember, you’re that kid who always did his flight simulators too fast,  _ and crashed them _ .” Keith said. 

Keith took on more of Shiro’s weight and tried to walk out of the lab, but Lance walked with him and pulled some of Shiro’s weight back. 

“I’ll have you know I’m in the  _ cargo _ pilot cadet classes now.” Lance declared. 

“Good for you?” 

They were about to step into the hallway when two other young men poked their heads in from the front door. 

“We’ve got some company incoming, so we might want to move!” The big guy in yellow said. 

_ You’ve got to be kidding me _ .

Keith picked up the pace and Lance followed suit. Outside the tent, dust clouds rose in the night sky as a caravan of armored Garrison trucks barreled their way. 

“Oh, this isn’t good.” The big guy said. 

_ I’m really getting sick of the Garrison tonight _ . 

“We’re getting out of here. Hop on the bike!” Keith ordered. 

Lance and his two buddies did not hesitate to follow. With all five of them on board, the bike’s balance was off, it tilted dangerously to the right, but Keith had no choice but to start the engine. A Garrison soldier was already screaming at them through a megaphone. 

“Will this thing fly?!” The little guy asked as he propped up Shiro. 

“We’ve got no other choice.” Keith said and he took the brake off. 

Keith turned the bike and it launched from its start. The three behind him were screaming as they clung to each other, and to him- if it was any other situation he would’ve shoved them off his bike. The desert whipped by them and Keith wove in between pillars and boulders, he glanced over his shoulder and cursed when he saw the Garrison on their hover bikes and trucks in full pursuit. 

Fancy flying wasn’t going to shake them. Keith shot his bike in between two rocks. In front of them the canyon opened up, it’s jagged edge revealing a black maw. Keith grinned. 

“Is that a cliff!?” Lance yelled. 

“Yup.”  Keith floored it over the edge. 

The bike hovered in the air for a moment, and then they dropped, the three behind him screaming. The wind whistled in Keith’s ears and his too big flannel flapped around his waist, his hair flew back. The Garrison sirens grew distant. Keith smiled to himself. 

  
  



	6. Maps (Pidge)

“Careful with him!” Keith snapped as Pidge and Lance loaded Shiro’s body off the hover bike. Keith shook his head and started to walk into the dilapidated shack he had brought them to. 

“What is this place?” Bunk asked as he looked around as if waiting for a monster, or worse, the Garrison to show up. 

“My house.” Keith stated. He took off his gloves and shoved them into his pocket. 

“I got him!” Lance said as he began to slip under Shiro’s weight. 

Pidge rolled her eyes. “No, you don’t-“

Shiro plopped onto the ground, but luckily Hunk picked him up in time before Keith could turn around. 

“Bring him in here.” Keith said. 

Lance and Hunk followed him with Shiro. Pidge grabbed her back pack and heard something rattle inside. There wasn’t going to be anything wrong with her equipment as long as she didn’t look. 

The inside of the shack was no better than the outside. Cans of food that has been scraped clean were stacked neatly in one corner. One of the windows was broken, allowing for orange, desert dust to settle thick on the sill. In fact, there was a layer of dust all over what Pidge assumed to be the living room. Photos of the previous owners were obscured by grime, and if the TV had been in working condition, it’s screen would have been too dirty to see anything. 

There were only three doors off the living room, only one was not locked. It was a bedroom and Keith was rummaging in the drawers. 

Maps were tacked up on the largest wall across from the front door. Pidge set down her bag and heard it tumble over. She winced, but was too busy staring at the web of string, pushpins, notes, and sharpie doodles. Aside from a clearly marked: “Garrison HQ”, the rest of the pins seemed to gather towards one rocky hill not too far from where they were right now. 

Amid all of it was one word, scrawled faintly, almost hesitantly: Voltron. 

She would have to ask Keith about that later. Pidge turned to Shiro, slumped over in Lance and Hunk’s arms. Now, she had bigger problems. 

Takeshi Shirogane. It was really him. 

He had to know. 

Pidge tapped Shiro on his cheek. Not even a twitch. She did it again- faster and harder. Nothing. Pidge’s eyebrows stitched together and she began incessantly tapping Shiro’s unconscious face. 

“ _ What _ are you doing?” Keith asked. 

Pidge only paused long enough to glance back at Keith. “Trying to wake him up,”  _ What does it look like I’m doing?  _

Keith scowled and turned his attention to Lance and Hunk. “Bring him in here.” he said. Lance and Hunk pulled Shiro away from Pidge and laid him on the bed in the other room. Keith stared down at Shiro like it was the most terrifying thing in the world. Pidge heard him mumble a thanks. 

“Come on, Hunk,” Lance said, “Let’s give him some room.” 

Lance closed the door behind him and when he looked up, his eyes gleamed. “Alright, let’s see what makes Keith tick.” And he started snooping around the living room. 

  
  



	7. Astrolabe (Shiro)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing Shiro, and the richness of his character and relationships has so far been the highlight of this rewrite.

Shiro had to be dreaming. 

Somewhere in the room, he heard Keith muttering to himself, opening and reopening drawers and boxes to double and triple check what he saw was there. That was impossible. Keith was back on Earth. Safe.  _ Unless- _

Shiro cracked his eyes open and saw Keith staring back. Shiro sat bolt right up. “ _ Keith _ ?! How did you get here?! Did they get you?!” It was just the thing they would do to him. Of all people, why did it have to be Keith? “Why-”

Keith held up his hands, his eyes wide. “Shiro, it’s okay, relax, you’re on Earth.”

Shiro blinked and the events from the night before came crashing back to him. The escape. The pod. Earth. The scientists. Voltron. It was all fuzzy, but it was there. He looked at Keith. 

“You’re here?” Shiro asked. Even to himself, he sounded tired. 

Keith nodded. 

Sunlight streamed in through shafts in the blinds and dust danced in the light. Cicadas were already starting to sing. He lay on top of a bed with well-loved, warm blankets. Keith sat beside him in a chair he had pulled from the kitchen. 

So, he was on Earth. At home. 

Shiro didn’t know whether to laugh or throw up. 

He buried his face in his hands. Somewhere in Keith’s home there were people talking in rapid, hushed voices. Keith didn’t seem to be bothered, so Shiro decided not to get too worked up about it. 

“You saved me?” Shiro asked Keith. 

Keith shrugged, trying to play it cool. “I did what anyone would have done.”

“How did you find me? How could you have known I was crashing?” 

Keith averted his gaze. “I’ll tell you later.”

When Keith finally looked at Shiro again, it was like he was looking at everything on his body. Shiro moved to cover his metal arm, but he knew there was no point. Keith had already seen it. 

“What…” Keith said, his voice small like when he was a kid, “happened to you?” 

Shiro looked down at his body. “Alot. A lot happened to me.” 

They sat in silence. Shiro flexed his metal fingers and tried to ignore the burning phantom pain where he knew his stump ended underneath the plating. 

Keith took a deep breath and stood. “Okay. What do you need? Food? Shower? I have some clothes I can give you.”

* * *

When Shiro got out of the shower, Keith was still sitting in his chair. He was fiddling with his knife, but now clothes had been laid out on the bed. Black thermal long sleeve and pants, a dark grey crew neck that had been washed too many times, and some socks and boots. Shiro could not believe Keith was willing to part with these. Keith glanced up as if seeking approval. 

“Would it have killed your dad to get something in color?” Shiro smiled at Keith, but even he knew it didn’t reach his eyes. 

Keith’s lips quirked up and that was worth the charade. “Firefighters don’t need to be flashy.” he paused. “Sorry, I don’t have anything else that would fit.”

Shiro shrugged. “It’s fine, really. But are you sure you want to-”

Keith silenced him with a look. He turned his attention back to his knife before adding: “It’s not like he needs it. He left it all behind.”

Shiro decided to change the subject before he lost Keith for the rest of the morning. He started to pull the new clothes on. “How’s Adam?”

Keith scoffed. 

“ _ Keith _ .” Shiro glared at him, mid head pull-through on his shirt. 

Keith rolled his eyes. “Last I heard, he got relocated to Germany or something.” he admitted. 

_ Germany or something. Adam is in Germany or something _ . 

“Oh,” Shiro said. “ _ Oh _ .” Despite everything that had happened since stealing that pod, he now felt light-headed. “And he left you here?” 

“It’s not like he could take me with him.” Keith said. “Besides, I  _ chose _ to stay.  _ Unlike him _ .” 

_ Adam _ . 

Shiro finished getting dressed, because it was all he could do, and walked across the room. He opened the door and saw three people around Keith’s age. They stopped what they had been doing and stood practically at attention. Shiro kept walking. 

He stepped out of the house and walked across the dirt yard until he came to the edge of the property. The sun painted the morning desert rosy; somewhere birds were starting to call for their partners. 

Shiro stared off until all his eyes saw was the hazy shimmer on the horizon. The Garrison was somewhere beyond the horizon, at least if Shiro had pointed himself in the right direction. The gears in his hand whirred as he wiped his sweating palms- palm- against his pants. Shiro raised his arm and looked at it. 

_ The Garrison didn’t even recognize me. I was trying to warn them. _

Shiro felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Keith. He hadn’t even heard him approach. Or maybe he wasn’t paying attention. That would get him killed... 

“You okay?” Keith asked.

“Yeah,” Shiro said, “I’m fine. It’s just weird to be back.”

* * *

Keith coaxed Shiro back into the house, and the three from earlier were squabbling over the map on Keith’s wall. When Shiro entered, they fell silent.

“Please, no need to stop the fun on my account.” he said. 

The three blinked and gaped at him. The one boy in blue was the first to break the mold. “Shiro, right? Pleased to meet you, I’m Lance.”

The boy in yellow stepped forward, rubbing his hands together. “Mr. Shirogane, sir-”

Shiro waved him off. “Just Shiro is fine.”

The boy in yellow’s face turned red and he quietly introduced himself. The last boy only watched Shiro with folded arms as if he were evaluating him. 

“I’m Pidge.” he said without interest. 

Shiro swore the boy was the spitting image of Matt, glasses and all. 

They had addressed him so formally, and they were with Keith. “Were you all at the Garrison?” Shiro asked.

Lance beamed. “Yup! Senior cadets!”

Hunk smiled. “You actually taught my freshmen marksman class.”

For the first time in a long while, Shiro felt a smile spread on his face. “That’s great! Are you Keith’s friends?”

Lance’s face fell and he looked like he wanted to spit blood. 

_ Well, whatever that means. _ Shiro was just relieved Keith finally made friends in his senior year. 

Shiro looked around the room and saw Keith’s wall of maps. One word scribbled in Keith’s block letters stood out among the others. 

Voltron. 

Shiro brushed past the cadets and stared at the word surrounded by other notes. He turned to Keith. 

“ _ Where have you heard this word _ ?” 

Keith shrugged. “I-I don’t know. Out here, I’ve been feeling this strange  _ energy _ , I don’t know what else to call it. It’s drawn me to this cave,” Keith pointed on the map, “And it’s covered in strange writing...the only thing I’ve made out is this word.” 

Shiro felt like he was free falling.  _ Not Keith. _ Before he could even begin to process what Keith just said, Hunk spoke up.

“If you don’t mind me saying, I think Pidge found something, too.” Hunk said. “He picked up aliens talking about Voltron last night, and the coordinates they were talking about match the pins on your map.”

“How did you know that?” Pidge asked. 

“Well, your notebook just happened to fall out of your bag and I just happened to look at it.” 

“You  _ what _ ?!”

Hunk smiled to himself as he held up a picture of Pidge and a girl. Shiro was even more convinced that Pidge looked like Matt in the picture. 

“Look, it’s Pidge and his girlfriend!” Hunk said.

Before Shiro could get a closer look, Pidge snatched the photo and the book from Hunk’s hands. “ _ Give me that back! _ ” he said, his tone icy. 

While Hunk and Pidge wrestled for the journal, Shiro swallowed the lump in his throat. 

Voltron really was on Earth. 

They knew that. They were bound to be coming. 

“Shiro?” 

Shiro realized the room had fallen silent and the other four were looking to him. 

“Sorry about that, I was thinking.” Shiro lied. 

“About?” Keith asked. 

_ It’s now or never _ . “The people I escaped from, they’re looking for Voltron. It’s a powerful weapon and they will surely use it to attack Earth and other planets.” Everyone in the room stood alert. “If they’re looking for it, we need to find it first and tell the Garrison. It’s what I was trying to do before, you all saw how that turned out. Maybe if we have definitive proof, they might be more willing to listen.”

The four looked between themselves.  _ Cadets _ . 

“Keith, Pidge,” the two looked up at the sound of their names, “do you think you can follow the energy or the signals to where they are coming from?”

“Oh, of course!” Pidge said. Keith only nodded. 

“Alright, team,” Shiro said, “let’s roll out.” 

  
  



	8. The Blue Lion (Lance)

Keith had dragged them out to the middle of nowhere. The sun beat down in thick waves, the only shade came the wings of vultures. Lance grumbled as he tied his jacket around his hips. He glared at the back of Keith’s head as he took a sip of water from his canteen. Keith must have felt Lance staring at him, because he turned around and held the canteen out to him.

“I’m good, thank you.” Lance stated as he looked in the opposite direction.

Keith shrugged and put the stopper in the canteen. The five of them plodded down the half-worn trail. Pidge’s scanner beeped in a steady rhythm, he was too busy watching the information come through to wipe away the sweat beading on his neck and forehead. Lance looked to Hunk, he was fanning himself with his hand and there was a ring of darker yellow on his shirt around his neck. 

“You bring us out here for any good reason or are you just messing with us?” Lance asked. 

Keith whipped around. “I told you the Voltron is out here!”

“ _ How do you know? _ ”

“ _ I felt it! _ ”

Keith glared at Lance and opened his mouth to say more, but Pidge held up his device. “There  _ is _ something out here, my scanner is picking up energy somewhere underground.” he said. 

Lance wished he was underground. It would probably have been cooler. Keith halted and pointed to a gap in the rocks. “That’s the cave.” he said. “That’s where it’s coming from.”

Lance and Hunk shared a look. Pidge nodded and trudged forward. Together, they all filed into the cave. The cave was dark and cool and Lance felt like he could finally breathe. 

“So, what’s going on here, Keith?” Shiro asked. 

“I don’t know,” Keith said, hand tracing along an old carving. “I’m just guided here.” 

_ Not so cool now _ . Lance though. He leaned against the wall and his fingers brushed against one of the crude carvings in the rock. The cave flooded with light, as blue and bright as the ocean. The others gasped. 

“They’ve never done that before.” Keith breathed. 

Lance gazed up at the carvings. Many were nonsensical swirls, but scattered among them, he recognized a few. Somehow, as easily as if he were switching between Spanish and English, he switched to the carvings and read over and over again: Voltron. 

“Are you guys reading this, too?” Lance asked. 

Keith nodded, he was the only one that didn’t shoot him a confused look.  _ Great _ . 

“What does it say?” Pidge asked. 

“What do you think it says?” Lance asked. “It says, ‘Voltron’.” 

The moment the last syllable left Lance’s mouth the cave rumbled. Hunk’s eyes winded and that was the last thing Lance saw before the world fell out from below them. Dust and rock filled the air as Lance tumbled down a cavity in the earth. Screams ripped through his throat, and the others around him fared no better. 

Lance bounced off a rock and felt a bruise already begin to form as he crashed into something wet. He groaned as waves from where the others landed washed over him and he sat up. 

They sat in a pool of water, Hunk and Pidge clung to each other. The cavern was filled with the blue light from the cave. Lance rubbed the dust and water out of his eyes and looked up. He felt like he was punched in the stomach. 

Sitting in the middle of the water was a giant robot. It was surrounded in a dome of humming energy that was tiled like honeycomb. The robot was the size of a small plane and it was shaped like a cat. Only cat didn’t seem like the right word. It was blue in its body and head and paws and it’s connecting joints and limbs were silver. 

_ Blue lion.  _ The words came to Lance as if they had fallen into his brain from somewhere else. 

Keith scrambled to his feet and approached the Lion. Lance rushed to meet him. 

“Is this Voltron?” Keith asked. 

_ You’re welcome, I made the ground collapse. _ Lance thought. Yet, there was a nagging in the back of his brain that Voltron was...not this? He shook the feeling off.

Keith reached out and brushed his hands against the force field. The humming grew louder and the energy became static around his hand. Keith drew back. 

Lance raised his hand. 

Keith shot him a look. “Hey, don’t-“

Lance knocked on the force field. It sounded like he was knocking on glass 

Keith scowled. “Why would you think that would-“ 

The lion’s eyes glowed. Behind them, Hunk and Pidge screamed again, and the force field retracted itself. Lance’s fist still hung in the air. 

“I meant to do that.” He said. The Lion moved. Despite being sealed underground and waiting in water, the lion’s joints moved as easily as if it had just been to the mechanic. It lowered its head to Lance’s level, and as everyone else jumped back, Lance remained.  _ It would never hurt me.  _ The Lion paused and Lance looked back at the others. “I meant to do that, too.” 

Shiro lowered his guard. “So, how do we take this thing back to the Garrison?” He asked. “This  _ is _ what we’re looking for, right?” 

Lance looked to the Lion. “I’ll fly it out of here, of course!”

“ _ That’s _ a ship?” Hunk asked. 

“Yeah.” Lance said. He didn’t know how he knew. “Why wouldn’t it be?” 

“Okay, well how do we get in?” Keith asked. 

Lance turned back to his Lion. It opened up its mouth. “Like this, Keith!” Lance said and walked into the mouth of the Lion. 

Hunk called after him that he didn’t know what he was walking into, but Lance knew it would be okay. Why wouldn’t it? The mouth opened into a cockpit. Every panel and button illuminated blue. Lance rested in the seat. It felt like it was made for him. 

“Come in, guys!” He called. 

The others stepped inside, touching the walls like it would disappear beneath their touch. 

“Okay,” Keith said, “How do you fly this thing?” 

_ How do I fly this thing?  _ Lance took hold of the controls. “Ummm, go?” 

And the Lion shot forward. The cockpit filled with screams as Lance pulled the controls back to brake the Lion, but the controls stuck and the Lion kept speeding forward. The vision filled with rock and instead of failing, the Lion plowed through like it was made of jelly. 

The Lion broke the surface and came to a stop. Lance felt everyone else crash into the back of his chair. 

“Is everyone okay?” He asked. 

“No.” Hunk grumbled. 

“ _ Cargo pilot _ ,” Keith scoffed as if he couldn’t believe it. 

“Hey! I wasn’t even controlling this thing! It just went!” Lance said. 

“Oh, really?” Keith asked. 

“Really!” Said Lance. 

“Really?” Pidge wondered aloud as he righted his glasses. 

“Do you think it can take us somewhere else?” Shiro asked. 

“Yeah,” Lance said, “I’m sure it can.” 

He looked down at his controls. He didn’t know what to press and if one would trip a fire alarm. Take us home, lance thought as Keith bore holes into the back of his head. 

The Lion shot forward again and climbed in attitude. Those that were non seated fell against the back wall, lance was pressed into his chair. “You are the worst pilot ever!” Keith cried and Lance chose to ignore that comment, he had bigger problems. 

The blue of the sky melted into grey then back and that was all Lance saw when he thought; slow down. The Lion slowed to a more normal speed and everyone grumbled as they righted themselves. Lance took a deep breath that his organs finally weren’t pressed into his spine. 

Pidge adjusted his glasses and looked out the window. “Is that...Kerebos?” He asked. 

Shiro ran to the window. His face paled. “It is…” he whispered. 

Pidge shook his head. “How are we this far out? It usually takes six months to get here!” 

The only response he received was Hunk’s gagging. Lance turned to his passengers. “Don’t worry, I’m going to take us home.” 

“Uh _ , Lance _ .” Hunk said. 

Lance turned and saw in front of them, a blue, circular gate. Lance pushed his Lion back, but it did not answer. Hunk began to throw up as the Lion sank thorough and into darkness.

  
  



	9. Do You Feel That? (Zarkon)

Zarkon stared out the windows on his ship’s bridge. Below, fighters escorted cargo ships that loaded and unloaded quintessence on and off the larger cruisers. The operation stretched as far as he could see.

The door hissed open and shut behind him, and he heard light, shuffling footsteps. 

“What is it, Haggar?” Zarkon asked. 

He knew she was kneeling behind him, but he gave her no leave to stand. “My lord,” Haggar said, her voice gnarled, “I have come to ask why you are moving the supplies of quintessence at such a rapid pace,” she paused and then added as an afterthought, “Is something the matter?” 

_ ‘Is something the matter?’ _

Zarkon could have laughed. “Have you not felt it?” Zarkon asked. When Haggar remained silent, he decided to provide the answer for her. “Voltron has awoken.”

Haggar stiffened. “That is impossible.” 

“I intend to get it back.” Zarkon said. “All of it.” 

He swore he heard Haggar choke. She rose to her feet as fast as her decrepit body allowed. “This futile hunt for Voltron has already wasted so much of our-“ 

Zarkon wheeled on her. “ _ I did not give you permission to stand _ .” 

Disgust washes over Haggar’s face, but she quickly closed her glowing eyes and bowed her head in humility. Her long, white hair and hood swallowed her face. 

“Voltron lives,” Zarkon continued, “I cannot begin to explain how or why, but it is a fact. It is time I take back what is rightfully mine.” 

“And how do you plan to do that, my lord?” Haggar asked. 

Zarkon turned back to his fleet. “The new paladins have surely also felt the call. They will come together and when they do, I will destroy them and take Voltron for myself.” 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zarkon gets a POV!   
> He's a character I thought was so tossed around in the show that I can't wait to do more stuff with!
> 
> You've reached the half-way point of episode one! Please leave your kudos and comments!


	10. Allura and Coran (Lance)

The Blue Lion knew where it was going. They shot through the gate in front of a planet that, other than the strange continents, looked like Earth. The Lion had a pep in its step as it raced to the surface. Rentery went without even a hint of burning up. They broke through the clouds above an empty field with a tall white structure rising from the surface. 

It glided down to the side of the building, and waited as hangar doors creaked open. Birds squawked and fled, and vines collapsed as their support shifted. Lights flickered to life and the Blue Lion flew into the hangar like it had done it a million times before. The Lion settled into a spot and powered down like it was going to sleep. 

Keith grabbed Lance by his jacket. “What did you-”

“Hey, at least I did something!” Lance shoved Keith. 

“ _ We’re lost in space! _ ”

Shiro shoved his arm in between them. “Knock it off, you two!”

Lance shot Keith one final glare and turned to Pidge and Hunk. Hunk was trembling and staring out the lion’s eye windows. Pidge was typing something into his computer. His eyes widened. 

“I have no signal from the Garrison,” he said. “Wherever we are, we’re far away.” 

Everyone’s face fell. Keith shook his head and began to press random buttons on the lion’s control panel. Lance felt his insides turn, he ripped Keith’s hands away. 

“What are you doing?!” he demanded. 

Keith pulled his hands back. “Trying to make something happen! We can’t just stay here!” He turned back to the panel, not a single light was on. “Why isn’t this thing working?!” 

Shiro cleared his throat loudly. “ _ Pidge, can you get a reading on the atmosphere? _ ”

Pidge typed away and looked up. “Very similar to Earth’s,” he said. 

“Do you think someone lives here?” Hunk asked, his voice small. “I mean, someone had to have built this place, maybe we can ask for help.”

“Good idea, Hunk,” Shiro said, “Lance, any way you can open up this thing’s hatch?” 

“Ummmm…” Lance tapped his finger against his chin as he examined the various buttons and levers.  _ Can’t you just open? _ As soon as he thought it, pistons whirred and a ramp opened up in the belly of the lion leading to the outside. “I can!” Lance beamed. 

They exited the Lion and looked around the hangar. A large hallway led to other parts of the building and Shiro suggested that they go that way. Lance stole a last look over his shoulder, his lion’s eyes glinted for a moment, like she was winking. He knew she would be okay. 

The building was like a castle- huge with elaborate and delicate decoration. However, as Pidge seemed to point out every ten feet or so, there were computers and technology running throughout; it was in the floors, the walls, and the ceilings. When Lance ran his hand on a banister it came away thick with dirt, he was surprised to see that below the castle’s trappings were a metallic white. No matter how loudly they called, the only responses they received were mice scurrying. 

A door near the center of the castle opened to a circular room lined with pods, like tubular fish tanks. Most were dirty and their panels dul, but two in the far corner blinked with multicolored light. 

“What are these things?” Hunk asked. 

“They look like...life support pods…” Shiro muttered.

Lance eyed the two with the blinking lights and knocked on the glass. No answer. Somebody had to be home. He reached for the panel. 

Somewhere behind him, Pidge had venom in his voice. “Lance, do not-”

He pressed three buttons in quick succession.

The pod hissed and Lance jumped back. Puffs of steam rolled out as the door swung open. Lance prepared for the worst: a face hugger, a volatile ET, instead he heard a sigh, like someone waking up from a long sleep. Out of the steam, stepped a girl. Her eyes, somehow pink and blue all at once, looked at Lance for only the briefest moment before rolling back into her head. 

The girl crumbled. Her skirts and long, flowing sleeves trailed behind her like a banner. Her silver hair was curled in perfectly tight, small ringlets; some fly-aways managed to escape, but they fit her face like a frame. Lance leapt forward and the girl fell into his arms. 

“ _ Father… _ ” she called out, her voice weak. 

Lance knelt on the floor and propped the girl up in his arms. She blinked and looked around the room, her gaze settled on Lance. Lance smiled down at her. She was beautiful. 

“Who are you?” she asked, she wrapped her fingers around his wrist, butterfly soft. “What’s happening?” Her voice was like a bell. 

“ _ Hey _ ,” Lance said, “I’m Lance. And don’t worry, you’re safe here with me.”

“Safe?” the girl asked. “Thank you, but…” she trailed off and reached her free hand up to brush Lance’s cheek. “ _ Your ears _ …”

_ She’s probably delusional _ . “My ears?” Lance laughed, trying to make his voice as gentle and even as possible. 

The girl snatched Lance’s ear in between her fingers and sat bolt right up. “What’s wrong with them? Did you get into an accident?!” she cried. 

“No! No accident! I know they’re kinda big, but-” Lance yelped as the girl twisted his ear to get a better look. 

She gasped and released his ear, and when she did her hair moved enough that Lance could see her ears were pointed like an elf. Lance could not even question the strange sight because the girl snapped up and grabbed his face in both of her hands and inspected it from every angle. “And your markings…?” 

With his squished eyes, Lance saw the girl had two pink swishes on her cheekbones. The girl’s eyebrows stitched together and she moved her hands to knock over and pin Lance to ground. She held one arm back and had one hand on the back of his neck, Lance thought his shoulder was going to pop out of his socket. 

“Who are you people?!” the girl demanded, looking around the room. 

Shiro held up his arms in surrender. “We’re very sorry, we’re not here to hurt you,”

“‘ _ We’re sorry _ ?!’” Lance cried, and the girl pulled his arm back even further. Shiro shot him a look that said, very plainly: ‘Shut up’. The two combined made a compelling argument. 

“We got... _ lost _ , and we landed here.” Shiro explained. “We were looking for someone to help us. We’re from Earth.”

“Earth?” the girl asked. She ignored Lance’s pleas to let him up. “But your planet is galaxies away. You’re not advanced enough to make it out here. And how could you possibly be speaking Altean?” 

“How are you speaking English with a British accent?” asked Pidge. He circumnavigated the girl and went straight to the other pod. “Who’s in here?”

The girl blinked. “I don’t-”

Pidge opened it up. Muttering came from inside the pod, and Pidge stepped back. A man with a wild mustache launched out of it, fists flying. 

“ _ Let me at ‘em! _ ” he cried and then skidded to a halt when he realized there was no ‘em to be let at. 

“Coran?” the girl asked. 

“Princess?” he replied. 

“ _ can someone please let me up? _ ” 

Coran balked at Lance and the others. “Who are these strange looking people?”

“ _ Earthlings _ ,” the girl said. 

“That’s not likely,” Coran said, “How did you get here?”

Lance sucked in a breath and tried not to choke on the dirt from the floor. “We found a blue robot lion, and-”

The girl dropped him like he burned her. “ _ You what _ ?!” 

Lance groaned as his arm flopped down. “Yeah,” he mumbled, “It likes me.” 

The girl shook her head and stepped back. “No, that’s impossible, the Blue Lion…” she trailed off as if remembering something, and then her head snapped up and she looked to the man. “Coran! The attack!” 

The man’s eyes went wide. 

“What attack?” Pidge asked.

“How could you have missed the carnage and destruction?” the man, Coran, asked. 

Shiro shook his head. “Sorry, we didn’t see anything when we flew in. Your building looked overgrown, in fact.”

The girl and Coran shared a look. Coran strode back over to the pods and hit a few buttons. He read the screen and the color washed out of his face. 

“Princess,” he said, his voice hoarse, “It’s been over a thousand years.”

“A thousand-” the princess swayed and braced herself against the wall. She shook her head and turned her attention back to Lance and the others. “I-I need to see something. Please, follow me, we can introduce ourselves on the way.” 

  
  



	11. Chosen (Lance)

Princess Allura walked through the halls of the castle on a mission. She stepped over rubble and ignored the dust collecting on the hem of her dress. Each new and strange encounter made her walk even faster. Lance wanted to race forward and ask her if she was okay, but his arm protested the idea. 

Allura led them to a room with cracked windows. She surveyed it and took a deep breath. 

“Sorry! Miss Princess! Can you please tell us what’s going on?” Shiro asked. 

_ Miss Princess? _ Lance had heard worse, and better. 

Allura clapped her hands together and the room fell in darkness. She released them up into the air and when she did, the room was filled with pin pricks of light. They were like stars, and they swirled around the chamber like the cosmos. Allura studied the lights and her mouth fell open. 

“It’s true,” she breathed. 

“What is, princess?” Coran asked. 

Allura shook her head. “The Lions have selected new paladins.” 

Lance looked at the rest of the group. They all looked as confused as he felt. The swirling stars locked into place, one by one, over their heads. Allura cleared her throat, and spoke like this was something she had memorized.

“Princess-” Coran began, but he was cut off by Allura.

“The Yellow Lion,” Allura declared, “Is for the strongest member of the team. Steadfast. Loyal. It has chosen you, Hunk.”

Hunk stared up in awe at the yellow star above his head. 

Allura waved her hand and watched as the green star settled near Pidge. “The Green Lion is the lion of cunning, intelligence, and trickery. It seems to have chosen you, Pidge.”

Pidge stared at the green star like he was staring down the end of a rifle. 

The red star zoomed past Lance and came to a halt above Keith. “The Red Lion,” Allura smiled to herself, “The lion with a temper. The fastest of all five, only a true pilot can turn it into a formidable force. It has chosen you, Keith.”

Keith smirked at the red star. Of course he liked the sound of that.

A black star soared across the room, Lance watched it go over his head, then Keith’s, and then land above Shiro. “The Black Lion is the leader of the Paladins of Voltron.” Allura said. “This paladin is level-headed, courageous, and above all, selfless.”

Shiro gave one firm nod, accepting his post like he was born to do it. 

Lance watched as the blue star came crawling past Allura and to him. He felt the same call like he did back in the cave. Despite already having his lion, he felt pride swell in his chest of it choosing him. 

“And lastly, the Blue Lion.” Allura said. “The Blue Lion-”

“You don’t need to tell me,” Lance said, “Belongs to the most gorgeous and talented of all the paladins?”

Allura shot him a look. “Belongs to Lance,  _ of course _ .” Allura turned her back to Lance and he pretended he didn’t feel like he got stabbed in the heart. “This star map shows the location of each lion, we have some ships probably still operational in the hangar, plus the Blue Lion. It will be possible to gather them all before the day’s end.” Allura clasped her hands together and the stars shot back to her. She bowed her head to her hands. Light returned to the room.

“Wait? Why would we gather the lions?” Hunk asked. 

“Because they won’t work without their paladins, of course!” Coran cried. 

“Yes, but  _ why _ do we need them?” Shiro asked.

Coran opened his mouth to speak, but Allura raised her head. “We were asleep for over one thousand years, our castle is now destroyed, and the last thing I remember was that we were under attack.”

A pit grew in Lance’s stomach. “From who?”

" _ The Galra _ .” Allura looked pained to say it. Shiro stiffened. “We were attacked by the Galra in cold blood. My father called them power hungry. He- he put me and Coran into hypersleep as the attack breached our walls. If the state of this castle is anything to go by…”

Coran stepped forward. “Voltron is a gift from Gwyn himself, or so the story goes. It is our people’s most powerful weapon only capable of being wielded by five at a time in the universe. Voltron defended our ideals of peace and justice in the days of old. However, at the time of the attack, Voltron was incomplete. With it, we may stand a chance. The Galra surely did not just stop with us.”

Shiro nodded. “They held me prisoner for two years. My crewmates are still with them.” he said bitterly. 

Allura’s face softened. “If what you said is true, and the Blue Lion was sending off energy signals on Earth that you were able to find, then who knows if or when the Galra will find the others, and what they could do with that energy.” 

“They were looking,” Shiro said, “It was all they talked about for weeks.” 

Allura waved her hand and a computer screen appeared in front of her face. She typed away and sucked in a breath. “One lion is here in the castle, the Black Lion, right where my father hid it. Two are hidden on different planets. And one, the Galra have found.”

“Which one?” Keith asked. 

_ Yours _ .”

Keith’s face darkened. “We’re getting our lions.” 

  
  



	12. The Green Lion (Pidge)

They had decided to divide and conquer. Allura stayed behind to get the Castle of Lions (Pidge could not believe how aptly the castle had been named) up and running, Lance took Hunk in the Blue Lion, Coran took Keith to find the Red Lion, and Shiro had volunteered to go with Pidge. 

They flew in silence from the moment they strapped in to the moment the navigation system told them they were arriving. Shiro did not talk save for the occasional instruction for Pidge to flip a switch or to ask if she was comfortable. 

The Altean ship should have been the most beautiful thing Pidge had ever seen. Even though the controls were written in the strange spiral writing that somehow only Lance and Keith could read, Shiro was piloting it without fuss. 

“Can you read this stuff, too?” Pidge asked. 

Shiro stole a glance at the controls. “Nope.” 

“Then how can you…?”

“It’s a ship. There’s only so many ways it can fly.” Shiro said, turning his attention back to where he was going. 

If Shiro had noticed her staring, he did not mention it, but he kept meeting her gaze every so often. His eyes flicked over her, as if searching for something, but he would ultimately decide it was nothing and go back to his job. Yet, she kept looking. 

She finally had Shiro. Alone and awake. 

“You really are one of the best pilots in the Garrison.” Pidge said, trying to make the set up natural.

“So, they say.” Shiro said, pressing a button. 

Pidge waited a moment, and then she went for it. “What happened at Kerberos?” she asked. She saw Shiro’s jaw tighten. “People- everyone on Earth has been wondering for years.” 

Shiro sighed. “It was the third day on Kerberos, we were in the middle of collecting samples, and then…” He ran a hand through what had been his black hair. “Matt saw them first. Matt Holt. He tried to warn us, but we were all pulled into the tractor beam. The Galra, that’s what the aliens are called, took all our stuff and then took us back to where they came from.” 

Pidge’s heart beat in her throat. “And then what?” 

Shiro shook his head. “I’m sorry, Pidge, I don’t want to talk about it right now.” He blinked and took hold of the ship’s controls so hard his knuckles turned white. 

Pidge flopped back into her seat.  _ If we’re a team or something now, I can always ask him later.  _ Later. She hated that word. 

“Pidge?” Shiro asked. “Did, uh, did they declare us dead?” 

He would not look at her. He blinked fast. 

Pidge pulled her knees up to her chest. “Yeah.” she said. She heard Shiro take in a breath. “They did.” 

Shiro grew quiet and his grip on the controls slackened. “Poor Colleen.” he finally said. “Poor Katie.”

Pidge felt like she had been struck by lightning. “ _ Katie _ ?”

“Sam’s daughter, Matt’s sister.” Shiro said. He laughed a little. “She had a bet with Matt, if we would find alien life. I bet the both of them were expecting bacteria, if anything. Looks like Katie was right. We did find aliens.”

Pidge looked away. “Of course Katie was right.” 

“She’d be about your age by now…” Shiro mused, “maybe a little younger.” Pidge felt the breath catch in her throat. “How old  _ are _ you?” Shiro asked as if he had been wondering about it for some time. 

“Almost eighteen.” she lied. Well, kind of lie. Pidge was about to turn eighteen. 

The computer on the ship beeped and Shiro and Pidge turned their attention to it. “Looks like we’ll be landing soon,” Shiro said, “Get ready to meet your lion, Pidge.”

* * *

Shiro guided their ship down to a clearing in the middle of a jungle. The atmosphere readings were good and together they stepped off the ship. The jungle was lush, and perfumed flowers of every color bloomed on the trees and vines. A river babbled by their feet and creatures that looked like damselflies flitted about. Birds called to each other in their songs and voices. The air was thick, but no oppressive, it was as if even the air was reminding them that life was everywhere. 

“So,” Shiro said, “Where do we start?”

Pidge let her eyes slip closed. Lance and Keith had found the Blue Lion like they had tracking beacons in their head. Yet, she felt nothing. No special force. Just that this planet was awesome, and her thoughts had quieted. 

“I don’t know, do you think-” next to Pidge something made a sound like a very large frog. 

She turned and saw a bipedal sloth standing in a dugout canoe. He waved to Pidge. Pidge jumped behind Shiro and he in turn jumped in front of her. The sloth thing did not seem alarm. Instead, he beckoned them forward. 

“Pidge, do your instincts say to follow this guy?” Shiro whispered. 

“What do instincts have to do with anything?” Shiro shot her a look. Pidge sighed. “Yeah, they do.” 

They got into the canoe and the sloth began to propel them forward with a pole. Pidge looked back at the sloth and he smiled at her, as much as his face allowed a smile. She recognized him. She did not like that she recognized him. Because there was no way she could. Pidge turned around. 

“Hey,” Shiro said, “Everything will be, okay. You just gotta trust the Lions, I guess.”

The sloth lead them down the river. He pulled them to a stop in front of a large pyramid covered in vegetation. Pidge took a deep breath and stood. 

“I guess, I’ll see you on the other side.” she said. 

Shiro nodded.

Pidge entered the pyramid, it was dark and smelled like decomposition. Pidge winced as her shoes sank into muddy puddles and the water crept into his socks. Yet, she kept going, because her stupid teammates needed her. The universe needed her, for some reason. Her father and brother needed her. 

The hallway opened up to an atrium, and in the middle perched on a pedestal was the Green Lion. It was smaller than the Blue Lion and it had a black, shell-like shield on it’s back with more of the spiral writing on it in gold. 

Pidge took a step forward and stopped herself. This was supposed to be the lion belonging to the smartest member of the team. Then why was it just sitting in the open?

_ The only entrance is the way I came. There is nothing at eye level, so that means…  _ Pidge bent down and picked up a handful of dirt and tossed it at her feet. The dust settled on a trip wire. Pidge laughed.  _ A little juvenile, but it’s effective. Besides, the Lion still only activates for one person.  _

Pidge looked up and the Green Lion’s eyes glowed. Pidge stepped over the wire and the Green Lion opened up its hatch for her. Pidge ran in and the lion took off. She let out a shout of joy for the first time in what felt like years. 

  
  



	13. The Yellow Lion (Hunk)

The closer they got to the place where the Yellow Lion was supposed to be, the more Hunk felt like the world wasn’t sliding out from under him, like he finally had solid ground. The planet below them was cavernous and craggy, every inch covered in rock. 

“You shouldn’t be nervous.” Lance said as he brought the Blue Lion in for a landing. 

“I’m not.” Hunk insisted. Lance shot him a look. Hunk cast his eyes down. “What if the lion doesn’t like me?”

“The Princess says it has chosen you, so it’s gotta like you a little.” Lance said. “My lion liked me at first, and I didn’t even know it belonged to me!” 

“Yeah, but you’re different, you’re good at everything.”

Lance raised an eyebrow. “ _ I’m _ good at everything? Me.” he asked. “Hunk, I made you throw up twice in the past day.” 

Hunk shrugged. “I don’t know, Lance…”

Lance reached his hand out and took hold of Hunk’s arm. “Okay, if I’m good at everything, then  _ I do know _ . And I know you’re going to go in there, and get your lion, and then we’re going to save the universe.”

Hunk’s stomach flipped at that. How were they going to save the universe? How was he?

Lance flipped switches and pressed some buttons, and Hunk just looked at him. Lance was still in his Earth clothes, he had not eaten in hours, he had not slept since the night before their failed simulation, and yet here he was piloting an alien ship like he was born to do it. 

“The atmosphere is stable, the only life forms are some Galra ships, but they’re on the next moon, if you get in and get out, we should be able to leave before they can catch us.” Lance said. 

“And we really don’t want them to catch us.” Hunk mumbled as Lance brough the Blue Lion in for a landing. 

The Lion hovered down in front of a cave. Lance looked to Hunk. “Good luck.” he said. 

Hunk walked out. The planet’s sun was scorching, but the cave was dark. Hunk lit up a flashlight and went into the tunnels. The tunnels in the cave changed as if on whim. The ceilings would be vaulted with stalactites to rough and brushing Hunk’s head in a matter of yards. The passages would go from spacious to Hunk barely able to shimmy sideways. All he had was a flashlight and the feeling of sureness that pulled him like a magnet. 

_ Why do you even feel sure about this? _ A little voice in the back of Hunk’s head said as he pushed himself through a barely person sized crack in a wall. A bead of sweat dripped down Hunk’s neck. He just  _ had _ to be sure. 

Down a corridor, Hunk spotted a dot of light. The magnet’s pull grew stronger. Hunk entered a chamber, and it was like the air had gone still. A single shaft of duty light came down from high above, and it illuminated the Yellow Lion. 

_ Why am I here? _ Hunk thought.  _ I’m not a warrior. Or even a pilot. I get motion sickness from just the simulator. _

The Yellow Lion remained cold and lifeless. 

_ And you chose me _ . Hunk thought.  _ To protect people like Allura and Coran. You must have chosen me for a reason.  _

“I...I hope I’m worthy of you.” Hunk said. “Because I will use your power you give me to help everyone, the best that I can.” 

The Yellow Lion’s eyes glowed. It bowed down and opened its hatch for Hunk. Hunk stepped in and sat at the control seat. A deep part of him knew to take hold of the controls and which buttons to press. The Lion soared into the air and out the top of the cave. 

“You did it!” Lance cheered. “I’m so proud of you!”

The Yellow Lion flew to meet the Blue Lion and together they headed back to the Castle of Lions.

  
  



	14. The Red Lion (Keith)

Keith stared up at the Red Lion. It was still like a statue, and it stared out unseeing across the hangar. Keith walked up to it. 

“Alright.” He said to the Red Lion. “Let’s go.” 

He expected the glowing light when Lance met the Blue Lion, but there was nothing.

He waited another moment. Still nothing. 

Keith glanced down and saw the ties holding the Red Lion to the hangar floor. Maybe that was it. Keith took out his knife and began to saw through the ties. 

One strap snapped. “It’s me!” He said to the unresponsive Lion. Keith jogged over to the next one, watching the lion’s face for any reaction. “Keith!” he spoke loud and clear, as if that would make the Lion understand. “ _ I. Am. Your. Paladin _ .” 

Silence. 

“ _ Come on! _ ” Keith cried. 

The door to the hangar opened and Galra droids stepped into the hangar. “Halt!” One ordered. 

_ Uh oh.  _

Keith jumped behind a barrel as blaster fire filled the air. He ducked under his arms as shots rained down around him he pressed the comm on his wrist. 

“Coran, I’m going to need you.” Keith said. A shot ricocheted off the barrel’s edge. “ASAP.” 

“No can do.” Coran said Keith heard blaster fire on his end, too. “You’re going to have to hold on for a little longer.” 

“Coran, I’m not-“ Keith was cut off as a blaster bolt exploded near his face, sparks hitting his cheek. 

Keith glanced around the corner. It was only five droids and one Galra with a metal arm and a prosthetic eye that looked like a camera lens. The Galra was not even participating, just watching on with muted interest. He and Keith locked eyes and Keith felt like the Galra was already planning half a dozen ways to butcher him. 

A droid strayed too far from the others, Keith whipped his hand out and stabbed it in the chest. The blaster fire increased at a rapid pace. Keith looked around, every door was sealed. 

“Now would be a really good time to turn on!” He shouted to the Lion. He received the typical response. 

The droids were getting close to the barrel. Keith peeled away and ducked behind one of the legs of the Red Lion. He glanced back. More droids were pouring in, and the one Galra remained where he stood. He raised an eyebrow to Keith. Keith felt something almost like a growl rise in his chest, he instead turned and freed the Red Lion’s third foot. 

He started his run to the fourth foot when his feet stopped reaching the ground. Boxes and the droids started to float, too. In their confusion, the droids started to blast each other. The Galra stood with his hands on the control panel. He looked directly at Keith when he pushed another button. 

The barrier that separated the hangar from space opened and everything that was not bolted down was sucked out. Keith reached out for his lion’s ear, but his fingers only grazed the surface. 

The black emptiness of space drew closer and Keith had just enough sense to activate his helmet. He took one last gulp of air before his helmet closed on him and he was shot out into space. 

It was cold, like he was shoved out into a snowy day without a coat or shoes on. The ship's force field trapped some heat, and it surely was the only thing keeping Keith alive. Keith heard Coran screaming, but he was too busy flailing to pay attention to him. 

Keith raked his brain for his “lost in space” training from the Garrison. 1. Don’t waste oxygen. Keith tried to level out his breathing, but his heart was still racing and he was still free floating with limited gravity. 

He knew what would happen if Coran couldn’t get to him in time or he didn’t make it back on the ship. He tried not to think about turning into human tomato sauce. 

_ This is it _ . Keith thought as he grew colder.  _ This was so stupid.  _

And then Keith heard a roar. 

Keith turned his head and saw the Red Lion flying towards him, eyes fiery and alive. The strap and its metal lock still clung to one paw. The Lion opened its mouth and Keith threw his arms up and shut his eyes. He heard the jaws snap shut, but he did not feel any spikes or gears shoot through his body. 

Keith opened his eyes and saw the Red Lion’s mouth. There was warmth and gravity and Keith heard the hiss of oxygen as it was released inside. 

Coran was screaming for him in the comms. Keith activated his end. “It’s okay, Coran.” Keith said as he continued to look around. His Lion was  _ beautiful _ . It had enough gear and instruments to be top of the line but just enough to be streamlined. “I think my Lion saved me.” 

The Red Lion rumbled. Like it was purring.  _ His _ Lion. 

_ My Lion _ . 

Keith took the step up into the cockpit and sat down in the chair. He took hold of the controls like it was a ship he had flown a million times before. 

“Alright you two,” Keith said. “Let’s go home.” 

  
  



	15. Sendak's Message (Zarkon)

“I take it you received Commander Sendak’s message?” Haggar asked. 

Zarkon could have rammed his finger through the keyboard he was working on. “I take it you received the message, as well,” he turned to the witch, “The  _ private _ message.” 

Haggar held out her hands like a peace offering. “This is for the good of the empire. Shouldn’t I know?”

“Not when it doesn’t concern you.”

“ _ Everything _ concerns me.” 

Haggar had come to his side and her eyes narrowed into golden slits. Zarkon scoffed. 

“We now have physical evidence that Voltron and its paladins exist and are alive and well.” Zarkon said, like Haggar would listen to him. “It appears that the Lions have chosen paladins all from that planet that nave Blaytz hid his own on. I should have suspected he would have gone so far out of his way to spite me.

“Sendak has reported that these Earthlings may be bringing their lions together at the last known location of the Castle of Lions. Voltron should be ours by the end of the day.” 

“You and I both know that paladins of Voltron will not die easy.” Haggar said. 

“Not easy, but not inevitable.” Zarkon pressed a key on this computer. “Summon my son. I think he and the green lion will be a great match.” 

Haggar’s face scrunched like she swallowed something bitter. “The prince is gallivanting around the Norio system, doing, how did he say it? ‘Overhauling the administrative system.’ He is surely too busy for this.”

Zarkon wheeled around. He towered over Haggar. “ _ The Galra do not turn their backs on their blood. _ Neither in times of distress nor triumph, or have you forgotten?” Haggar would not be cowed. Zarkon sneered. “Bring Lotor to me, the prince should see his future glory.”

Haggar bowed her head. “Yes, my lord.” 

Zarkon waited until he heard Haggar’s steps disappear until he left out his breath. When he had his Voltron back, maybe he would not need that witch anymore. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Galra do not turn their backs on their blood."   
> Remember this for later. 
> 
> (It's also a line I'm very proud of)


	16. The Black Lion (Shiro)

The doors in the back cut an imposing image over the rest of the hangar. Shiro looked up at the pearly doors nearly as tall as the room, he felt the pull, like a rope knotted around his stomach to what lay beyond. Part of Shiro wanted to place both hands on the rope and resist its pull, but it was a small part, overshadowed by a much stronger force. 

_ I have to protect them _ . A voice inside Shiro said as he watched the others circle around the newly arrived Red Lion. Pidge and Hunk analyzed the schematics the Castle’s computers were pulling up like kids watching a cartoon. Allura and Coran looked at all the lions assembled with distant eyes. Lance gazed up at the new lion, but when Keith came near, he declared it as: “Just okay,”  _ They don’t know what’s out there.  _ He took one last look at the people who were supposed to be his new team. 

Shiro wanted to grab Keith and bring him back to his apartment on Earth. Surely, Iverson would allow him to take Keith for a night or two. He’d give Keith the guest room, or the couch if Adam hadn’t already turned it into their office. In fairness, it was a nice couch. That way when Shiro surely woke up in the night he could keep an eye on Keith better, make sure he wasn’t getting attacked. 

He wanted Dr. Holt and Matt to be home with Mrs. Holt, Katie, and their cross-eyed dog. He wanted them to be alive. No, at least not in pain. Wherever they were. 

He’d drop off the three other cadets and then drive right on home. He’d put them where they belonged, where no one could get them, and when he taught class next they would just look at him with a little more fondness than the others, the fondness that only comes from experiences. 

_ I should have listened to you _ . Shiro thought to only one person in the entire universe. He wasn’t sure if he believed in some kind of connections of minds, but that would not be the least believable thing he had seen in the last two years, even the last twenty-four hours. Shiro hoped his message was received, some way, somehow, like all the other ones he had sent out on a wish and a prayer. 

Shiro took a deep breath and let everything he felt sink to the bottom of his mind.  _ Now’s not the time. _ He looked to Allura and Coran and nodded. Allura raised her hands and the doors swung open to reveal the Black Lion. 

It was bigger than the rest of the Lions, and it had wings folded into it’s back. It sat proud and tall, and looked down at Shiro like the generals he had faced as a cadet. Shiro felt like there was a howling wind at his back, and it pushed him along until he was below the lion. The tension in the rope in his stomach released. 

_ Hello _ . The Black Lion said, like it was reaching out a kind hand. It’s eyes flashed to life. 

_ Looks like we’re in this together _ . Shiro thought. 

Shiro did not see the others behind him, but he knew they were looking at him and his lion in awe, after all it was what his lion saw. The four other lions stood to attention, and it was then that Shiro turned. 

The Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow lion roared in unison. Shiro locked eyes with Keith, Lance, Pidge, and Hunk. His lion roared in response.

  
  



	17. Attack (Allura)

Allura did not know why she was so tired. She had slept for one thousand years, after all. She sat on the stairs that headed down to the armory. The light in the stairwell was broken and the only light came from the armory where the new paladins pulled on their armor with childish glee. 

She rested her chin on her hands, and looked on as Lance called Pidge’s newly transformed knuckle-bar “a cute little bayard”. Pidge turned up his nose and tapped his bayard against Lance’s side. It zapped him with electricity and Lance screamed bloody murder as he crumbled to the ground. 

“Yeah,” Pidge said smugly, “It is pretty cute.” 

A small voice in Allura’s head echoed what she had been thinking all day: how could these people be the new paladins of Voltron? They didn’t even seem to like each other! 

And here they were, putting on the armor of her father, aunts, and uncles. 

_ How can we defeat them? _ Allura thought.  _ We don't even know what we’re doing.  _

Keith’s bayard glowed and it morphed into a broad sword. Keith grinned down at it. Allura sat at attention. So far, Hunk, Lance, and Pidge had weapons completely different than any of the previous paladins. 

‘Magnificent.’ Allura could hear her father say. 

Keith swung the sword once. 

‘Observe the balance, Allura.’

Then, Keith whirled like he was parrying an enemy attack. His hair floated behind him. The light made his red armor shine, like it had never been in storage at all. 

Keith beamed from ear to ear and he echoed Allura’s father when he said: “Now, this is a sword.”

It was quiet, as if to himself, but Allura heard it nonetheless. She rose to her feet. 

“You should be happy to have that sword.” Allura said to Keith. The other paladins were busy playing with and testing out their new weapons. Coran was apologizing to Shiro over the missing black bayard. Keith deactivated his bayard and looked to Allura, his eyebrows stitched together. Allura fought back her tears. “It belonged to my father.” 

Keith’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but he closed it. Allura tried to offer him a smile, but she turned and walked out of the armory. When she knew the paladins wouldn’t be able to hear her, she ran. 

Allura ran down the twists and turns of the halls. Doors opened and closed for her. Her vision was blurry, but she did not need to see to get through her castle. 

Allura ran into the command room and stared at what had once been her father’s chair. A sob escaped her mouth and Allura buried her face in her hands as she sank to her knees. She cried and her sobs echoed in the empty command room. 

The door opened and Allura could not find the will to tell whoever it was to go away and leave her to die. 

“Princess?” It was Coran. She knew he had seen her when she heard him take a sharp breath. Allura looked up and a tear rolled down her cheek. It was so cold. “ _ Oh, Allura, _ ” Coran said like his heart was breaking. 

Coran knelt beside her and held out his arms in a hug. Allura trembled at the sight. Coran drew his arms back, his eyes filled with tears. 

“It’s hard, isn’t it,” he said. 

Allura nodded. Coran looked away and swiped at his eyes. He took a shuddering breath and that was it. 

“How are you so calm?” Allura asked. “How could you possibly?” 

“ _ I’m not. _ ” Coran said. 

Coran was shaking. His hands were in white-knuckles fists and he had lines in his face that had not been there that morning.

“I want to destroy them.” Allura said. She wrapped her arms around herself. Allura’s tears dried as she looked at her father’s chair. “I swear on the soul of my father that we will defeat them.” 

Coran nodded. “We will. And right now, we need to trust that it was Voltron who picked these new paladins and that Voltron will not allow for such atrocities as this again.” Coran rested a hand on his shoulder. “All we can do now, is help them.” 

Allura curled in on herself as a final wave of tears came. Coran repeated that it was going to be okay, but his voice broke. 

“They took everything.  _ For no reason _ .” Allura said. “After we helped them. Allowed one of their own to be a paladin. Taught them alchemy!” She looked down at her hands. The hands that bestowed the will of Voltron onto the new paladins. The hands that learned from and assisted in Galran alchemy. It spit on Gwyn’s name and the memories of his priests long dead. “I’ll never use my alchemy again.” 

Coran bristled. “You are the princess of Altea!” 

“And my father wasn’t an alchemist, he was fine.”

“Allura, please don’t be hasty-“

An alarm sounded throughout the castle and the lights flickered red. Coran hopped up and left Allura besides her father’s chair. He went to the scanner and his face turned pale. 

“Coran, what is it?” Allura called. 

“It’s the Galra.” Coran said. Allura pushed herself up. Her heart pounded. “They’re coming in for an attack!” 

Allura shook her head.  _ So soon? _

“Princess,” Coran said. “Call the Paladins.” 

Allura ran to the comms and smacked the button. “Paladins of Voltron,” she called, “We are under attack!” 

  
  



	18. Form Voltron (Hunk)

“ _ Report to the command center at once! _ ”

Every hair on Hunk’s body stood on end. His bayard devolved from a gatling gun back to the hand held device.  _ How did the Galra find us? _ Hunk went through all the actions he and Lance took, trying to find the one that led the Galra back to them. 

Even Lance had turned grey. 

Shiro broke the silence. “Alright, you heard the princess, let’s go.” And he walked out of the armory with Keith at his heels. 

Hunk, Lance, and Pidge were left. Pidge took a deep breath and held his head up high. “Well, this is what we trained for.” and he went up the stairs.

“You ready?” Lance asked Hunk.

“No.” Hunk said.

“Neither am I.” he gave Hunk a smile. 

It made Hunk smile. Together, they plunged head first into the darkness. 

The command center was deathly silent when Hunk and Lance walked in. Coran was hunched over the comms and Allura was chewing the nail on her thumb. Shiro, Pidge, and Keith stood close at hand. 

“We will show you mercy,” a voice on the comms rasped, “Only if you turn over the lions.”

“Like you showed Altea mercy?” Allura cried. “Never!” 

The voice on the other end chuckled, as if he had hoped and expected that answer. “So be it.”

The line went dead and the room was filled with static. Coran switched off the comms and shook his head. 

“That didn’t sound good.” Hunk said. 

“Very observant,” Coran replied, “Princess, what level are our shields?”

A screen appeared in front of Allura and she typed away. “Still not full strength. If we take a full barrage, they  _ will _ fail, it’d only be a matter of time.”

A sound like thunder crackled outside. Rockets of orange fire rained down from the sky. Hunk ducked and was prepared to have been blown to smithereens, but then the rockets burst so bright, he could see it behind his closed eyes. 

Hunk found the courage to open his eyes and watch as the rockets exploded against the ray shield. The shields held, but the castle rocked and the lights flickered. Another volley came with the same result. 

“Are we just going to wait them out?” Shiro asked as he unbraced himself. 

“Do you have any better plans?” Allura asked. She stumbled as the castle shook. 

Keith crossed his arms. “We could take the fight to them.”

Hunk glanced out the window and saw what looked like half a fleet of ships hovering above their airspace. “She said ‘better’, Keith.”

Keith shot Hunk a look, but was thrown off balance with another barrage. Hunk wasn’t sure which way was floor or ceiling; neither did his stomach.

Shiro looked to the windows warily. “Shields  _ are _ holding…”

The paladins, Allura, and Coran held their breath as a missile, larger than all the rest, was thrown at the castle. At impact, the shield turned red and the started shaking so bad Hunk thought he was going to lose a filling. 

Allura’s screen turned red in alarm. “The shields have been breached.” she said. 

The Galra ships began to descend from the sky. Hunk was not sure if his knees were still shaking from the seismic activity or if it was the impending doom. Probably both.  _ We’re toast _ . 

“We need to get out there.” Shiro said. 

Hunk wheeled around. “ _ Are you crazy?! _ ” 

“I can reroute the shields to protect the areas the Galra are firing.” Allura said, already typing commands into her screen.

“If I run into the basement, I might be able to get the cannons working.” Coran offered. 

Shiro’s eyes were like iron. “Like Keith said, they want us, let’s give them us,” he said, “I’m not going down without a fight.”

“I’m with you.” Keith said automatically.

“The Lions are our best bet.” Lance said. “Count me in.” 

Despite what Lance had told him only moments before, Hunk saw no hesitation or fear in his friend’s eyes. He felt sweat on his own neck. 

Pidge nodded, stepping closer to the other paladins. 

All eyes were on Hunk, and he stood in front of Allura, Coran, and the other paladins and felt like he was stripped of his armor. 

It was Shiro who talked first. “You don’t have to come, Hunk.” 

The basement sounded safer than outside. Maybe if he could get in the basement he could just slip away. 

_ But what about your friends? _

Hunk looked to his roommate, his snobby teammate, a class dropout, his undead teacher’s assistant, and two aliens he had just met. 

“No,” Hunk said, the rolling in his stomach finally stopping, “I’m coming with you guys.”

Shiro smiled. “Good to have you on board,” he turned to the rest of the paladins, “Okay, team, let’s move out.” 

The paladins stepped out of the command center and made their way to the hangar. Like clockwork, there was the screaming of missiles far over head and then the castle trembled beneath Hunk’s feet. He did not try to brace. The faster they all got to the hangar, the faster it would be over, one way or another. 

Hunk felt calm. His steps were even and his shoulders square. He walked like Keith, who walked like Shiro. Lance was trying to walk like them, but he was trying too hard. He walked like an over-eager duck, and that gave Hunk some comfort. Pidge fiddled with his bayard. 

The hangar opened up before them and the lions’ eyes glowed when they spotted their paladins. Hunk rubbed the yellow lion’s nose.  _ Looks like it’s showtime _ . The lion purred and lowered its head. The hatch in its belly opened and Hunk climbed in. 

The lights in the control panel glowed yellow. Hunk still had no clue what any of them did.  _ You piloted the lion before, you can do it again _ . He told himself. 

Hunk sat down in his chair and took hold of the control sticks. Through the lion’s eyes, Hun saw Shiro, Keith, and Lance already flying out of the opening hangar door, leaving him and Pidge in the dust. 

“Thanks for all the help, you flying aces.” Hunk said to himself. 

He shoved a control stick forward and the yellow lion took a tentative step. On the other side of the hangar, Pidge got his lion up in the air and they flew out the hangar door, albeit a little slower than the other three. 

“Hunk, come one we need you.” Lance’s voice crackled in Hunk’s ear. 

“Wait, how can I hear you?” Hunk asked as his lion took two more steps. 

“Your helmets are connected to each other within a certain range, and with me in here.” Allura’s voice said. “I just patched all of you through.”

Hunk came to the edge of the hangar and looked down off the jump. It was a steep drop, perfect for taking flight. Above, the four other lions were streaking across the sky, dodging laser blasts and Galra drone ships. 

“Alright,” Hunk said to his lion, “let’s go.” His lion jumped off the edge and hovered in the air, inching across the sky. Hunk actually laughed. “I did it! I’m flying!”

Above the commotion, Hunk heard Lance cry: “That’s great, buddy!”

Smaller Galra fighters whizzed in the sky shooting at the other paladins and at Hunk. The yellow lion absorbed the shocks, but it still threatened to spin out and crash. The lion made a sound and Hunk wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be a comfort for him or a scolding. 

The castle’s shields blinked in and out as Allura programmed them to block incoming blasts in each direction. A five foot chunk of barrier would appear, black a laser, and disappear just as quickly. 

In Hunk’s ear, Pidge screamed as he was blasted out of the sky, only for him and his lion shake it off, and get right back up, yelling obscenities at the Galra. Keith had figured out how to shoot his own lasers at the ships, his lion only pausing long enough to open its maw and aim. The ships exploded brilliantly each time. Hunk bounced around the inside of the yellow lion like a tin can. 

“Okay, girl, what do we do?” Hunk said to his lion. He was disappointed he received no answer. 

A scream ripped through the comms. It was Lance. Hunk watched the sky and saw the blue lion streaking across the battle, trying to out maneuver the Galra. Lance’s fancy flying was the only thing keeping him alive, but it was all he was doing and it was drawing the ships to him. 

He could not possibly take them all. 

“ _ Lance _ !” Hunk yelled and punched his Lion forward. 

The Yellow Lion shot into the air, quickly catching up to the Galra chasing Lance. 

_ Protect him. Do what you have to do, Lion. _

The yellow lion snatched a Galra ship out of the air with it’s jaws and shook it like a toy before letting it drop dead to the ground. It went to the next one and mid-shake, swatted another ship away with one blow of its paw. 

“Hunk, you’re amazing!” Shiro cried, his lion copying him. 

Hunk only had a moment to feel pride in his work, when Allura’s voice came over the comms. “The Galra ground forces are about to breach the castle-” Hunk heard her pause as she ducked from another blast, “Paladins!  _ Run _ !” 

The battle slowed.  _ Run? _

“ _ Princess _ ,” Shiro called, “What are you talking about?” 

“I mean what I said!” Allura said. “Run! Flee! If the Galra capture the lions, it’s all over!”

“And what about you?!” cried Lance. 

“ _ I don’t matter! _ ” Allura screamed. 

Hunk’s lion stomped on another ship. “ _ Yes _ . You do.”

“All paladins,” Shiro ordered, “Converge on the Castle of Lions.” 

The sentence had not even finished crossing Shiro’s lips and Hunk and the other paladins were racing to the castle. Allura and Coran were both calling them off. The paladins ignored them. The yellow lion stomped and chomped ships along the way. 

The paladins flew in a V formation: Shiro at point, with Pidge and Keith flanking him and Lance and Hunk taking up the back.  _ Protect the Castle. Protect Allura and Coran _ . Hunk was not even sure he thought it. Was it his lion? Lance? But Hunk could practically hear Pidge’s quick breathing, Keith’s heartbeat, every gear turning in every lion. 

_ Protect _ .

“Everyone! Form Voltron!” 

Shiro’s voice rang clear as if he was next to Hunk. As if on autopilot, the lions took an angle and raced skyward. Hunk heard gears in his lion move and lock into place. He looked from side to side and saw his lion’s paws changing shape. He had no idea what was going on. He did not care. Hunk  _ felt _ the minds of his friends. They were just as confused. Yet, each lion locked into a new position; there was a searing burst of light. When the light cleared, Hunk took a deep breath- he was on the ground? 

The Galra ships had slowed as if they were watching the paladins and whatever had just happened. The Galra command ships had ceased their barrage. Allura and Coran were screaming in pure joy. Hunk could not make out their words. 

Hunk looked down. He  _ was _ on the ground, but not in his lion’s, well, lion form. To his right was the blue lion, it’s head was on the ground and its paws were tucked into its body. It looked like- 

As Hunk looked up he saw all the lions had changed form; and the rest of the paladins were realizing it, too- completely awestruck. Their new lions were attached together to form  _ a body _ . 

Hunk laughed. “I’m a leg!”

“Me too!” Lance cried. 

“Arm! I’m an arm!” Pidge said. 

Keith laughed, a deep, belly laugh. Hunk felt his friends’ amazement and joy like it was the warmest blanket on a winter’s day. 

“This is Voltron?” Pidge breathed. 

They took a step forward and moved their arms. 

A giant robot they all controlled. 

“What do you say, gentlemen?” Shiro asked. “Should we send these guys packing?” 

“ _ Yeah _ !”

Keith, the right hand, summoned a sword like his bayard. Hunk shared one look with Lance, he couldn’t see him, but he knew Lance was looking too, and they took off into a run. The Galra ships were ordered to advance, but Keith sliced through them like they were nothing. They exploded around Voltron, and yet Voltron stood strong. 

“Let’s get some air,” Shiro said. Voltron leapt into the air, boosters in its feet and back propelling it. “Now, let’s go after one of those command ships.” 

They steered Voltron towards one of the large cruisers. It fired on them with the saem shield shattering bolts. Voltron maneuvered out of the way. 

“ _ Do your thing, Keith _ .” 

Voltron swung it’s sword and the Galra cruiser sparked and then snapped in half. The pieces combusted as they landed on the ground. The other ships’ engines fired up and they began to turn in the direction from whence they came. Their engines flared and then the Galra were gone. 

Voltron hovered in silence for a minute and then Pidge and Lance broke out in cheers. Allura and Coran echoed their enthusiasm, Hunk thought he heard Coran crying. Shiro and Keith were just laughing as Shiro divied out ‘congratulations’ and ‘good jobs’. Hunk only breathed a sigh of relief and fell back into his chair. He swiped the sweat off his brow. 

_ Thank you _ . He thought to his lion. 

And he swore he heard her say,  _ You’re welcome _ . 

  
  



	19. Destiny (Coran)

“I have a surprise for you, princess.” Coran said. 

Allura put down her plate and looked at Coran quizzically yet expectantly. Coran clapped his hands and the central computer glowed to life. A hologram rose in the center of the room. It was a man with a cape and a sword. His hair and beard were white and his ears pointed. 

Allura rose to her feet and approached the hologram, like she didn’t believe it. She probably couldn’t believe it. 

“Father?” Allura asked, her voice small and already laced with tears. 

The paladins paused and watched with bated breath. 

“Hello, Allura.” 

Allura blinked back her tears and a smile spread on her face. Coran’s heart ached. He thought it was because he was happy. 

“When I was activating the cannons, I found his file in the computers.” Coran said. “It seems that his majesty left something of himself in case something happened.”

“That is true. Thank you, Coran.” King Alfor said. Allura’s hands free to her mouth. The hologram of her father smiled at her. “Allura...I-I am so sorry. I have failed you. And surely the rest of the universe.” 

Allura shook her head. “No, Father, please…” 

King Alfor lowered his gaze. “When I suspected things were taking a turn for the worse, I recorded and uploaded myself into this artificial intelligence in the Castle’s computer. So that some of my will may live on. If you are watching this, then fortunately or unfortunately, it has worked.” 

“There’s so much I need to ask you,” Allura said. 

“And you will, in time, my Allura.” King Alfor smiled sadly at her. He looked out across the room and his face went grim. “There are five people I have never met before in this room. I have a feeling that these are the new paladins of Voltron.” 

Shiro stood. “Yes, sir.” 

“I see,” King Alfor said, “Then with the current situation at hand, I ask that you accept my service.” Alfor bowed his head. 

Coran felt chills run up his spine. What had happened to his king? 

Shiro swallowed hard. “We will take any help that’s willing to give it, your majesty.”

“I’m glad,” King Alfor said. 

“Father,” Allura said, “What happened?” 

King Alfor sighed. “I had hoped to shelter you from the horrible things that were happening, yet you still suffer. For that, I am sorry, Allura.

“By my calculations, 1,319 years have passed since the Galra attacked and Altea fell. I blame myself for this. I was given the honor of being bestowed the title of paladin of Voltron; yet, I failed my team and my duties. 

“As you know, the Galra were not always a militaristic people. But their emperor, Zarkon, was seduced by power and became obsessed in his quest for  _ more _ .

“I was blinded by my loyalty and my friendship to Zarkon. He betrayed me not only as an ally and friend, but as a paladin as well.

“My inaction not only got me killed, but my people, my fellow paladins, and countless others.

“However, before it was too late, I instructed the paladins to hide away their lions for a time when new heroes would arise from across the stars and they would accept the call to make Voltron whole again.” Alfor turned to the Earthlings. “Paladins, I speak to you, now. I didn’t have the strength to do what must have been done.  _ Do not repeat my mistakes. _ It is Voltron’s duty to defend the universe. From all that is wicked and cruel. 

“You five are all that stands between the darkness of the world and the light. Zarkon knows this, he knows this well, and he will stop at nothing to defeat you. You must fix the problems I and the previous paladins made, no matter the cost.  _ Or all will be lost. _

“This is your destiny as paladins.” 

The paladins looked between each other. Alfor looked away. 

“I will be here to assist you at any step of the way, and Allura and Coran as well, but most importantly, you have to look out for each other. You must choose each other. As the Lions have chosen you. As fate has chosen you. As the universe has chosen you. You cannot fail.” 

Aflor’s hologram dissipated into the light. Coran looked out at the five Earthlings and his princess. Allura was smiling despite her tears as she looked at the console, as if her father would return at any moment. Shiro, who seemed no older than her, stood with tight shoulders and head bowed, deep in thought. Coran thought he did not deserve that weight, but he carried it well and with familiarity. Keith sat back, away from the others, pushing his food around with his spoon. Lance, Hunk, and Pidge had grown somber, not even touching their food. 

This was the universe’s last hope. 

Coran could work with that. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of episode one! 
> 
> Let me know what you think!


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